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A needless lose
sinks Kotoko at Dormaa
By
David Kyei, Dormaa Ahenkro
22:00GMT,
22-02-2010
Asante Kotoko FC last Sunday failed in their bid to halt the
home invincibility of Aduana FC at their Dormaa Park, when they
suffered a painful 0-1 defeat.
The
defeat helped to consolidate the league aspirations of the
Dormaa club, whilst in the opposite direction; it further
deepened the woes of Kotoko by sinking them from the 9th
position to the 11th.
A
61st minute beautiful strike by Aduana attacker, Ali Nurudeen,
was what Aduana F.C and her rowdy fans needed to bring the
silent stands back to life after Kotoko had held them glued to
their seats for that period.
Kotoko had held the homesters spellbound with an all-attacking
game plan thereby giving their opponents no breathing space to
operate.
Right
from the blast of the whistle by Referee Thomas Nunoo and his
two assistants, Thaus Beatrice and S.V Hammond, to signal the
start of the match that delayed for a little over ten minutes as
a result of a down pour, Kotoko Carried the match to their
opponents.
For
the record, it must be said that the referees scored full marks
for the able manner in which they handled the match to ensure
that none of the cheating that have been reported by visiting
teams never happened under their watch.
Kotoko's all attacking football nearly paid off in the 7th
minute when Baffour Gyan connected to an Edward Affum pull out
from the right.
His
shot at goal got the Aduana goalkeeper stretch at full length to
push the ball over the line for a goal kick. He got injured in
the process and was attended to by his team's medics.
The
pressure continued on Aduana, whose players chased Kotoko
shadows for the greater part of the first half.
Kotoko fans in the 17th minute stood to shout for a goal only to
find that Affum's beautiful lob of the ball had landed on top of
the Aduana goal net.
Affum
was at his exciting best and his runs at the flanks created
problems for the jittery Aduana defense.
For
the first time in the match, Aduana came into the picture in the
19th minute when their striker, Richard Addai saw his shot at
goal miss target narrowly.
The
attack that led to the narrow miss served as a good tonic for
Aduana who from then on started matching Kotoko boot for boot.
Kotoko was left off the hook once again around the 21st minute
mark. With only Isaac Amoako at his mercy, Nurudeen Ali chose to
feebly shoot into the waiting arms of the calmly alert Amoako.
Realizing that Kotoko was better placed for an attack, Amoako
quickly launched an attack for his side. But for a slip by
Gideon Baah in front of the goal post, Kotoko would have would
have taken the lead in the 19th minute.
With
their opponents attacking from the middle, Kotoko resulted to
using fast breaks and counter attacks from the flanks and this
worked well for them.
At
this moment in time, the stadium had become dead silent. The
Kotoko pressure had killed Drumming and noise making.
Playing his first full match as a striker, Frank Boateng became
too hot to handle and so Aduana's Johnson Adomako resorted to an
unorthodox means.
He
went for an aerial challenge with Frank and instead of going for
the ball, he went for the face and got yellow carded for it.
At
the 30th minute, Amoako was called to duty once again. He dived
to parry a shot to corner and attracted full applause by making
a full grab of the corner kick.
A
slip by Ofosu Appiah at the back was tidied by his defensive
pair, Isaac Owusu before the referee sounded his whistle to
bring proceeding to a recess.
The
rains once again started at halftime and ended in time for the
second period to start.
The
second period was started on a quite note but action got hotter
over time.
At
the 55th minute, Paa Kwesi Fabin drew his first substitution
card for a tactical change. He brought on Stephen Manu for
Baffour Gyan.
Every
technical eye at the stadium applauded the change as it had
become apparent that Baffour was losing his cool as a result of
the neglect of his protection by the referee.
Manu's presence at the front brought some bite but could not
find the target despite his attempts at goal.
Aduana's Richard Addai once put Amoako to a test on the 57th
minute when beat a Kotoko offside trap to latch on to a through
pass. He fired a point blank shot and Amoako made easy work of
it by punching the ball back into play.
Though his touches whilst on the ball were superb, Jordan Opoku
was not being productive as a team player and so was pulled out
for Omar Gariba. His inclusion was to bring Michael Ofosu Appiah
from the right back to the middle.
The
decision to solidify the Kotoko defense by pulling out a
midfielder for a defender gave Aduana a respite to start
organizing themselves to attack.
Their
incessant attack paid off in the 61st minute for their match
winner and only goal of the match.
Isaac
Amaoko had made a brilliant save by parrying a Godfred Saaka
curly free kick to corner.
At
kick of the corner, Amoako once again jumped, but missed the
ball narrowly; however, instead of his defenders following the
ball, they stayed on their marks and watch the ball freely pass
onto the patch of on rushing Ali Nurudeen. He wasted no time to
drive home a powerful non-drop shot to beat every one standing
in the goal post.
The
goal threw the and Aduana fans at the park into wild jubilation
and this period also saw the start of a barrage of insults that
were hurled at Kotoko and her officials.
Aduana’s goal pricked Kotoko into full gear but all their
efforts did not yield any result.
As
per observation, Kotoko attackers did not fire any good shot at
the goal, and even with that, they slipped more often in front
of the goal posts than their opponents.
Francis Coffie had a good chance to equalize but his shot went
way wide of the goal post.
Despite the defeat, Kotoko players were so content with
officiating that most of the players went to give the match
officials a handshake and this good gesture by the Kotoko
players was complimented by the fans who also clapped for the
referees.
Kotoko:
Isaac
Amoako, Michael Ofosu Appiah, Gideon Baah, Isaac Owusu, Ofosu
Appiah, Daniel Nii Adjei, Edward Affum, Jordan Opoku/Omar
Gariba, Baffour Gyan/Stephen Manu, Frank Boateng, Francis
Coffie.
Unused substitutes:
Prince Anokye, Samed Oppong, Haruna Ganiyu, Kwadwo Poku, Soulama
Abdoulaye
Your Comments
Anonymous
Time to go...............paa kwesi
How long should we wait for paa kwesi ....... his method only
works for heart of lions not kotoko. get kotoko another coach
and keep paa kwesi as assistant.
ISAAC AGYAPONG, UNIVERSITY OF
GHANA.
FROM ALL INDICATIONS, OUR STRIKERS CAUSED US THE DEFEAT. I
THEREFORE WANT TO ENTREAT THE COACH TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE
STRIKERS. I AM SOMEONE WHO DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT COACHES, BUT
PAA'S SUBSTITUTION OF A MIDFIELDER FOR A DEFENDER LAST SUNDAY
DID NOT HELP US AT ALL. HE SHOULD WATCH OUT NEXT TIME. WE ARE
SOLIDLY BEHIND HIM.
KOTORCH-SOUTH AFRICA
Faaaaaaaabulos will always be the best.Keep on with the good
work, my boys
Johnson Adomako
Pls show character
KOBBY KING
As a matter of fact, this is the worst Kotoko team I've seen in
about 11 years. A whole Kotoko struggling to maintain a
mid-table position? And the management does not seem worried
about it? I believe both the current management and technical
team should throw in the towel gracefully and give way to more
achievement oriented professionals to run the team. We are tired
of "Ex this", "ex that" finding their way into management teams
ending up achieving nothing.
Your majesty, I think it's time you considered running Kotoko
like a business entity
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