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How Referee
Lemghambodji assisted Linguere to beat Kotoko
By David Kyei, Dakar, Senegal
23:02, 15-02-2010
Kotoko suffered a surprising
defeat at the hands of un-fancied ASC Linguere at the Stade
Demba Diop in Dakar, Senegal thanks to the magnanimity of
Mauritian referee, Ould Lemghambodji.
Kotoko had made the journey with
high hopes and so went into the match with the fullest of force
for success, but the match referee, Mauritanian, Ould
Lemghambodji had his plans, and effectively stole victory for
the Senegalese.
In the match itself, Kotoko
kick-started but almost immediately lost control to their
comparatively taller opponents who were being cheered on by
sparse spectators in the stands.
True to information, they started
playing high balls to use their height to advantage. This play
therefore gave the short Kotoko midfielders little room to
operate.
Linguere and the referees alliance
to cheat Kotoko started very early and nearly got them a goal in
the 3rd minute when a Linguere player in a clearly
offside positioning was waved to play on. His kick went wide to
the amazement of his colleagues and the relief of Kotoko.
Gideon Baah got the stadium
applauding for him in the 12th minutes with a timely
tackle and dispossessing an attacker who had gone past two
defenders and was on his way to entering the sixteen-yard box of
Kotoko.
The referee kept awarding strange
infringements against Kotoko around the eighteen-yard box and
Kotoko was lucky to survive that as their opponents kept
shooting wide.
Kotoko got closer to securing a
goal in the 22nd minute, but a finishing to an Affum-
Baffour Gyan combination was poorly executed by Francis Coffie
who feebly shot into the hands of tall goalkeeper of ASC
Linguere, Khadim Ndiaye.
Kotoko midfield started to find
their feet in the game by playing their balls on the turf. They
started pushing their attackers forward with some sweet passes.
However, either most of the dangerous moves by Kotoko were ruled
as offside, or a slight tackle on a Kotoko player was awarded as
an infringement, just to halt the good move.
Though the referee was effectively
putting the breaks on Kotoko moves, the players occasionally
took their opponents on and in one such move in the 37th
minute, Kotoko would have been a goal up if Edward Affum had
been a little bit selfless by releasing the ball to Kabiru Moro
who was better placed.
Isaac showed displayed why he
should not be left out in any future national team call up when
on the 44th minute, he did a double save to deny
Linguere a goal.
The referee had once again been in
his elements and allowed an offside situation to move on with
Kotoko defence caught waiting for the whistle to sound. With no
one to support him, Amoako rushed out to push out a point blank
shot. Whilst still on the ground, another Senegalese pounced on
the ball and chipped a curly one with the intention of beating
the struggling to rise goalkeeper.
Sensing danger, Amoako quickly
dived from the ground to make a full grab of the ball. The
applause was long enough and having realised that his intentions
had failed, the referee whistled for the end of the first half
after two minutes if time added on.
If officiating was bad in the
first half, the second period saw an even worse situation with
the referee now openly displaying his bias against Kotoko.
On the 50th minute
mark, a Linguere player in a challenge with Gideon Baah at the
left kicked the ball to what every one at the stadium saw to be
an goal kick situation.
Strangely, the referee who was
nowhere near (because he never run in the match) the incident
overruled his assistant one’s decision and offered Linguere a
corner kick. The resultant kick was nodded home Serigne Diouck.
Five minutes after the goal,
Baffour Gyan was shown the yellow card for complaining to the
referee that his marker had used his hand to push the ball.
This yellow card slowed down
Baffour Gyan as he became more cautious to even go in for a
tackle.
His fears were confirmed in the 57th
minute, two minutes after his first yellow card, he went in for
a harmless tackle and to his chagrin and that of the Kotoko
delegation, the old, pot bellied and stamina suspect referee
showed him the second yellow card and a red.
The action incensed Baffour but
there was nothing he could do but to leave the pitch.
Kabiru Moro’s performance kept
deteriorating and so Paa Kwesi Fabin, who was nearly sent off by
the referee, brought on Frank Boateng and also brought in Samed
Oppong for Francis Coffie who had fizzled out in the game.
The inclusion of the two fresh
limbs brought more fire into the game and combining effectively
with my man of the match, Edward Affum, Kotoko started making
dangerous inroads into their opponents’ area.
ASC Linguere also responded by
bringing on more men to consolidate their goal.
With his runs and contribution at
the right side of the Kotoko defence not effective, Michael
Ofosu Appiah was pulled out for prince Anokye.
The inclusion of more fresh limbs
made Kotoko more purposeful upfront, but also signalled the
referee to get into his worst elements.
He started ignoring clear
handballs by the Linguere defence and also overlooked cynical
tackles on Kotoko players. In one of such instances in the 62nd
minute, a bad tackle on Gideon Baah was ignored and the injured
player was also not attended to until after about a minute when
the ball went out for a throw in.
He was given a serious verbal
caution when complained about his neglect.
With some five minutes to the end
of the match, the Kotoko attack opened fire on their opponents
but mostly saw their shots go off target or had it parried over
the bar for corner kicks that went wasted.
Though the match ended in the
favour of the Senegalese, they could not celebrate it as the
pressure they put through gave them the feeling that on a day of
fair officiating, they would be no match for Kotoko.
Kotoko
Isaac Amoako, Michael Ofosu
Appiah/Prince Anokye, Gideon Baah, Iddrisu Yahaya, Ofosu Appiah,
Daniel Nii Adjei, Edward Affum, Jordan Opoku, Kabiru Moro/Frank
Boateng, Baffour Gyan (Red Carded), Francis Coffie/ Samed
Oppong,
Unused
substitutes
Soulama Abdoulaye, Prince Boateng,
Louis Agyemang, Alex Asamoah |
