By: David Kyei

Date: 07-06-11

A determined team Kotoko has successfully completed their season target by jumping to the second position on the league table after defeating their position contenders, 0-1 at their TTC Park.

Sweet as the victory was, it did not only secure the three maximum points at stake but also achieved three other important feats for Kotoko.

The victory destroyed Medeama FC’s home invincibility (being their first defeat at home), exact vengeance for the week one loss to them, and finally overtaking Medeama for the second spot on the 2010/11 Glo Premier League, and all these was enough for Kotoko fans in Tarkwa and other parts of the country to burst into wild jubilation when Referee William Agbovi sounded his whistle to bring proceedings to an end.

The match itself characterized by some shocking, funny and unimaginable incidences that could have easily brought the match to an abrupt end in other jurisdictions, but strange enough, all the events took place and yet the match went on to a ‘successful’ end to the extent of also enjoying a whooping ten minutes of time added on.

The night before the match, heavens opened up and it rained heavily for the whole night into the early morning on Sunday. Typical of Ghanaian football pitches, everybody became apprehensive fearing that the pitch would not be playable.

As expected, the team arrived at the park to find a heavily soggy pitch that even the uninitiated in football matters could see that it was impossible to play the match.

As required by law, the match officials led by a FIFA licensed Referee William Agbovi did an inspection of the pitch, instructed that saw dust be spread at some portions of the pitch for the match to be played.

The interesting thing was that, as they came for the inspection, none of the four match officials and the fifth person being a representative of the PLB came with a football to drop on the soggy to see if it would bounce.

Again, none of them wore boots to see the reaction of the playing kit to the muddy and slippery nature, but rather came in their slippers and sandals.

Having okayed the pitch for use, the two teams began hostilities at exactly 3pm with Medeama taking the first kick.

Their determination to win the match was amply displayed in the very early minutes of the match with their closest coming in the 7^th minute.

Medeama’s tormentor in chief Hans Kwoffie used the slippery pitch to advantage by body swerving Sabato Mohamed before unleashing a powerful shot at goal. However, Soulama Abdoulaye who had a great afternoon of sweet performance scooped his goal bound shot off the line.

Three minutes after the initial scare, Kotoko responded when towering Ahmed Toure out-muscled highly favored and spared Joseph Hendricks for the ball, sent a long curly cross into the path of Nii Adjei at the right side of the pitch. Without wasting time, Nii sent a pile drive at goal but his effort was saved with difficulty by Tijani Musah in post for the home side.

The battle raged on with Kotoko playing a tactically disciplined 4-1-4-1formation with captain for the day, Ofosu Appiah providing a good cover for the central pair of Awal Mohamed and John Kufour and an anchor between the defence and the attack.

In all, the battle became a Soulama against Medeama affair as he stood his grounds to pull one top-drawer save after another thereby forcing even the Medeama fans to applaud for him on many occasions.

The second half started on a fast note with Kotoko prying for an early goal. However, the dangerous tackles by Medeama defenders coupled with the neglect of the match referee to stamp his authority over the game scared the Kotoko attack from moving forward.

For the records, Joseph Hendricks had no business being on the pitch after he continually committed one offence after another with the most unpardonable one being his 56^th minute punching of the ball to deny Ahmed Toure an opportunity to score.

As the last man in defence and Toure clearly on the advantage, one would have expected Referee Agbovi to have issued the sending off order to the Medeama captain, but he only issued a yellow card to the chagrin of all.

The two coaches from both sides brought on more men to replace the tired limbs in their respective teams but it appears Kotoko’s introduction of Alex Asamoah was the tonic that broke the Medeama defence.

With Alex on, Coach Korak switched into a 4-4-2 formation and the speed of Alex Asamoah at the right and the strength of Toure at the left dazed the pair of Joseph Hendricks and Daniel Ocran who kept hacking the Kotoko attack without any caution from the referee.

With Soulama being a border, Medeama players had no choice but to crush him in the 77^th minute. He was replaced by Isaac Amoako who almost immediately scored full marks by parrying a goal bound volley over the bar for a corner kick.

In the resultant kick, Amoako was shoved off the ball for a Medeama player to kick into the net. The infringement on Amoako was aptly detected by Referee Agbovi who disallowed the goal and instead awarded a free kick for Kotoko.

Hell broke loose on the referee as supporters and some officials of Medeama rushed on him. In the ensuing confusion, one of the Medeama fans in the inner perimeter hurled punches on the referee from behind.

Interestingly, though the culprit was stopped by a policeman, the police’s action ended there as he was not arrested for prosecution, for he was seen bragging about how he was determined to follow the referees to the car park to beat them.

Whilst everyone was waiting for the referee to sound his whistle for the end of the match, a whooping 10 minutes of time was added and within that period, Michael Akuffu attracted a second yellow card and was thus sent off.

The journey back to Kumasi though was long as the bus made a detour through Takoradi to avoid the bad Bogoso - Anyiankwanta road, the joy of the victory was enough to sooth the travel worries of the team.

Kotoko: Soulama Abdoulaye/ Isaac Amoako, Yaw  Frimpong, Sabato Mohamed, John Kufour, Awal Mohamed, Ofosu Appiah/Alex Asamoah, Frank Boateng, Nii Adjei, Mike Akuffu, Samad  Oppong/Afranie Yeboah

Subs: Albert Bruce, Henry Ohene Brenya, Stephen Oduro and Nafiu Mohamed.