By: Jerry Afriyie Paemka

Date: 03-11-11

Match after match Kumasi Asante Kotoko are steadily proving themselves as the team to beat in this year’s Glo Premier League. Not only has the Porcupines been efficient but have also sold out some really wonderful football artistry in the four week old league.

 After a slow start at Tema where Kotoko drew 1-1 with Tema Youth, the Porcupines have posted three successive victories scoring eight goals and conceding two. Soon after the opening day draw Press Pass predicted that Kotoko will climb to the top of the log if they win their next three matches and even before week four they were already perched at the top.

Now the next two matches against Berekum Arsenal away and at home to Mighty Jets will define Kotoko’s first round and here I want to make one more prediction; If Kotoko should win these games they will open a three point gap at the top after week six and will still be on top irrespective of the result of the 7^th week el-classico against Hearts. Kotoko will then face their fiercest rivals under little or no pressure at all which is the best condition for Kotoko to beat Hearts.

For now I think we should put the Hearts game aside and focus on this weekend’s game against Arsenal at Berekum and also the midweek game against Mighty Jets in Kumasi. Playing two games in four days is quite tricky and will require a lot of planning, excellent organisation, preparation and focus to successfully execute with distinction. Afterwards, we will have eleven clear days to prepare adequately for Hearts of Oak on November 20^th.

 The Arsenal- Kotoko fixture at Berekum has become notorious for unhealthy incidents. In 2003/4 and 2007/8 seasons Kotoko needed military escort from Kumasi to Berekum to be able to honour the fixture in peace. On some other occasions that the team was not fortunate enough to get security escort, Kotoko officials, players, coaches and Kotoko Express reporters were abused and subjected to inhuman treatment. The security there is only for the home team and her fans as well as the match officials. Kotoko is guaranteed no security at all and so match officials are always at liberty to put the laws of the game aside and do their own thing anytime Kotoko come visiting.

On Sunday, it is our hope and prayer that none of the negative incidents that has happened at Berekum in the past will happen again and that the game will be played in an atmosphere of civility and fair play like the rescheduled fixture last season after a shameful attempt by referee Silas Okine to smuggle three points for the home team without Arsenal kicking a ball. Having just returned to the Golden City Park after serving a three match home ban for acts of hooliganism, surely some hard lessons have been learnt.

Talking about defining moments, next year’s African Cup of Nations to be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea could be a defining moment for Ghana football and the Black Stars in particular. The tournament provides a wonderful opportunity for the Stars to win their fifth continental trophy early next year. However we must be cautious and not underrate any team. Ghana, Botswana, Mali and Guinea in group D will be tough. Every game in the competition is going to be tough and therefore we should be coming from a position of working hard to seize an opportunity.

It is not guaranteed that the absence of Nigeria, Cameroun and Egypt would mean that Ghana will be crowned Kings of Africa at all cost. We need to plan and prepare very well. The organization and preparation of the Black Stars have been very good since the selection blunder cost us CAN 2008 on home soil where coach Claude Leroy took injured players to the competition and the Stars were found wanting at a critical stage of the competition. We have since learnt from that and to a large extent selected our best players available to participate in  Angola 2012 and the world cup in South Africa.

Now the Black Stars team is taking shape and could potentially achieve back-to-back success at CAN 2012 and 2013 if we plan to succeed. We have young players ready to take up the mantle when called upon at anytime. Goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey has come to solve many people’s headache in the goalkeeping department. Across the defence and midfield areas there are so many options available and what makes the Stars the team for the future is that most of the upcoming players are genuinely young.

The problem as we can see now has to do with the striking options. Apart from Asamoah Gyan, the Stars have no reliable finisher. Prince Tagoe and Dominic Adiyiah have been given more than enough opportunity to prove their worth but they have proven that they are not the answer to the Stars striking problem. What makes the issue even more worrying is the fact that there is no Ghanaian striker making waves in any part of the globe that we can quickly draft into the team. Perhaps Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck would have been the solution but unfortunately the authorities failed to convince him to play for Ghana and he is now set to star for England at Euro 2012 as Wayne Rooney’s replacement in the England starting line-up.

But it is not all that bleak for Ghana, there is hope and that hope is Asante Kotoko’s silver quick, silky skillful, confidently elegant and powerfully built striker Ahmed Toure. The native Ivorian have expressed the interest in playing for Ghana and has indeed initiated moves to naturalise as a Ghanaian. This is the best option available to Ghana at the moment because Toure will walk straight into the Stars attack without hustle.  However it is sad to say that there is no urgency on the part of the authorities to have the paper work processed quickly so that Toure could be eligible to feature for the Stars at CAN 2012.

The attitude of Coach Goran Stevanovic who prefers to stay in his native Serbia and monitor European based players gives credence to the notion that the Black Stars team is now the preserve of European based players and no one cares about locally based players. If you consider the Yaw Frimpong invitation saga just before the Black Stars game against Sudan as well as how the Toure issue is being handled, then one has to really weep for local players. If one measures the velocity of passion and emotional interest that the authorities and the media attached to the Quincy Owusu-Abayie and Kevin-Prince Boateng nationality switch to that of Ahmed Toure, the difference is as clear as day and night.

The Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) is another institution facing a defining moment in Ghana sports. Many people have termed last weekend’s GOC elections as a coup d’état, ambush etc., but although we finally have a GOC in place all the factions must bow their heads in shame for the disgraceful manner they conducted themselves at last Saturday’s congress. It was obvious personal interest was placed way above the national interest.

Now Professor Francis Dodoo and friends are at the helm of affairs. However considering the deep acrimony and irreconcilable division that has dogged the Olympic family for the past three years, I think we should settle on the Prof. and his team and give them all the support, never mind the way they came in. We were never going to get a peaceful, free and fair election and the athletes were going to be the ultimate losers.

Now let’s see the new GOC board moving straight to rescue the imminent Olympic disaster that stares us in the face. At the moment Ghana has no medal hopeful for the London 2012 Olympics and whiles football did not qualify, the fortunes of traditional medal prospects like boxing and athletics are plummeting with no end in sight. Over to you Prof. Francis Dodoo and the new GOC board.

Cheers!