By: David Kyei. Zlatibor, Serbia

Date: 12-08-11

Despite surrounding an earlier lead to end up 2-4 losers, players of Fabulous Asante Kotoko FC have become the hot targets of Serbian opponents F.K Sevojno.

Officials of the Serbian club have expressed interest in Ahmed Toure, Awal Mohamed, Jordan Opoku, Isaac Amoako and Michael Akuffu.

To demonstrate their determination and desire to have if not all, some of the players, the club president of F.K Sevojno was seen trying to engage the leader of delegation and the head coach in talks.

As he could not speak not even a little English, his emphasis was on getting Bogdan Korak give him a favorable response to the desire he and his club expressed.

Later in a chat with coach Korak, he confirmed that yes indeed a request for the players have been made and discussed.

“Since I am not the club president, I have asked them to wait until the Executive Chairman arrived in Serbia so that we can have a fruitful discussion”.

Though it remains a fact that getting the opportunity to sell out some of their players who are on tour is one of the prime reasons for embarking on the tour, it remains to be seen what kind of offer would be made officially for them.

However, the FIFA agent who worked tirelessly to assist Kotoko come to Serbia, Goran Milovanovic of Virtus International, was around at the match and was privy to the discussions so one can never say never when the money involved is good and meets the expectations of Kotoko.

On the match itself, Kotoko players though suffered a defeat fought gallantly as they did battle their opponents with tired limps after over 24 hours of continuous travelling by air and road.

Two goals by Ahmed Toure was not enough to secure a much needed win for Kotoko as a victory in that match would have set a good starting tone for the training tour.

That notwithstanding, the team played so well until a point when nature took its toll on the tired players who also had to endure a very hot afternoon with temperature raging between 36º-38 ºC.

The weather condition was so harsh that for the first time in the careers of almost the Ghanaian component of the Kotoko contingent, there were two breaks in the match. First was when the referee stopped the match for a two minutes break on the twentieth minute mark, and the second being the halftime break.

The heat and fatigue wore Kotoko players down and could not run better anymore. Their challenges for balls were always weak. The Sevojno coach realizing that Kotoko players were tired from the travel instructed his players to go hard in their tackles on Kotoko players.

Sevojno players started taking Kotoko on the run and speed ball thereby crushing the Kotoko resolve that had been carefully managed.

Their pressure on Kotoko yielded results as they scored three goals to set the score line at 3-2 at half time.

The two coaches introduced more players into the match with Sevojno bringing on seven as against Kotoko’s five and it paid off for Sevojno as one of the substitutes perfectly completed a sweet inter-positional play to record their fourth goal.

Despite tiredness and exhaustion that made things difficult for the team, Kotoko could have done better if the players upfront had taken their time and corporately sought the interest of the club.

In my opinion the telepathy that was seen between Nathaniel Asamoah and Ahmed Toure which was seen at the start of second round of the 2010/11 league season has died off.

Kotoko could have killed off the game in the first twenty minutes as chances upon chances came the way of Kotoko but the attackers treated the Kotoko interest their own ways.

Kotoko: Soulama Abdoulaye/ Isaac Amoako, Yaw Frimpong/Sabato Mohamed, Prince Anokye/Louis Quainoo, John Kuffour/Henry Ohene Brenya, Awal Mohamed, Frank Boateng/ Harrif Mohamed, Daniel Nii Adjei/Obeng Reagan, Michael Akuffu, Ahmed Toure/Nafiu Idrissu, Jordan Opoku and Nathaniel Asamoah