By: David Kyei

Date: 02-06-11

Baring any legal injunctions as threatened by some clubs, the 2010/11 Glo Premier League season would draw to a close on Sunday and Asante Kotoko’s Bogdan Korak says his joy would be to see Kotoko win their last match of the season on Sunday.

Kotoko travels to the gold mining town of Tarkwa on Sunday to play against Medeama FC in a match that holds a lot of promise for the two clubs who are pegged fifth and second respectively on the league table.

The interest of Kotoko in the match is so high for the fundamental reasons that a win over Medeama will not only increase Kotoko’s points haul to forty-six and thereby giving the team an urge over Medeama for the second position, but will also be a sweet revenge as Medeama was the first club to puncture the pride of Kotoko when the inflicted a painful 0-1 defeat on them.

These and many other reasons are not oblivious to Bogdan who in recent times has come under a barrage of criticisms from fans for the way Kotoko has been ‘unnecessarily’ dropping valuable points through uninspiring performances.

Speaking to Kotoko Express in the company of his assistant, Prince Acheampong, after training session on Wednesday, Korak, who feels so bad about the poor performance against Liberty Professionals, said he was not living anything to chance and that the last match was as important to him as a cup final.

“Every body now knows that the league has been won by Chelsea and so the top spot is out of the question, but the battle for the second spot remains open and beating Medeama on Sunday is the only way we can be second on the table”

“I know that the second spot does not take the club to Africa, but we have to win for the pride of it”.

“I am particularly interested in winning because it will mean a lot to me. Having taken the club from the fourteenth position to a second position will be no mean an achievement and I am eager to do that”.

For that reason, he has promised that his team for Sunday would be made of players who are hungry for success and also clearly the high stakes of the match.

“Kotoko has to beat Medeama to be second and we are going to do just that with the players who understand the situation. No lazy players would be entertained for that match,” Korak emphasized.

Looking at the playing materials available for Sunday, one is tempted to be worried about Kotoko’s strength as some of the reliably used players, i.e, Nathaniel Asamoah and Prince Anokye would not be available for the match due to medical problems.

However, the Serbian believes that their absence would not be too much of a bother to his plans.

“Yes the two players are fantastic but their absence would not mean much to our plans. Remember we beat Hearts without Nathaniel and in the same way we have won some difficult matches without Anokye. It would have given us more options if the two were to be available, but since they are not, we are looking ahead and will make other players available to fill in their places”.

“We have a team and the players available are very much up to the task ahead of us”.

Concluding, he reiterated his stance that the MTN FA Cup was his ultimate local target for the reason that it was the only way Kotoko could use to make an Africa appearance.

“Kotoko is a big club and so we have to play in the Confederations Cup. This is the more reason why I am not taking the MTN FA Cup lightly,” he said.