By: David Kyei, Zlatibor, Serbia

Date: 12-01-11

Though two victory in three matches may not be enough to start making value judgment on the performance of the team, some officials of the Kotoko contingent here in Serbia say they are impressed with the play of the team.

In far departure from the long high balls that has unfortunately become a characteristic of Kotoko, the team played a crisp precision passing game that drew applause from the few spectators that were at the Zlatibor Park to watch their new African neighbors play.

Speaking to Kotoko Express after the match, Operations manager, Ernest Owusu Ansah, expressed his satisfaction with the play of the team , especially with how they kept a cool head in the game and played for each other as a team with a collective responsibility.

“After watching the video of the first match, I was not impressed with the way the high sense of individualism that were displayed. Today’s match was different and I am hopping that it continues like witnessed to the end”.

Technical Advisor to the Executive Chairman, Malik Jabir, also shared in the commendation and also prescribed the best way to keep such a game plan.

“When players play such beautifully in a match, it is always important to let them know that they did well and also use that praise to set a new challenge for them to achieve”.

“It also requires the coach not to make a drastic change in play pattern. Though making slight modifications would be ok, it will be defeatist to decide to make experimentation when you have not perfected the play”.

Team psychologist, Patrick Ofori, who spent the greater part of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning interacting with the players was even happier with the performance for some reasons:

“We went into the match with a program routine and I am happy that the players plied them to the letter. We treated the match as playing say an important match where the players were asked to play to the whistle, communicate with each other productively and complain little or not at all about referee’s decision”.

“Apart from the incident that made Nii Adjei attract a yellow card, all the other points we raised and decided to go about in the match were complied with”.

As though Bogdan Korak were hearing them, he also expressed satisfaction with the performance and said he was hoping to see the team improve on even the show that is being touted as impressive.

“Our performance was super and it is important that we stick to our programs and perfect the play. Continual practice of the play would help the players to fully understand the system”.

“Having realized that the players play better under such game plans, we are no more going to do the high balls, bur rather do the sweet passing game,” he said.