By: Jerry Afriyie Paemka

Date: 17-11-11

Sunday will be yet another day that everything happening in the country will have to give way for the biggest football fixture in the country; Hearts vrs Kotoko, now christened the “El-Classsico” by connoisseurs of the game, likening it to the Barcelona vrs Real Madrid blockbuster in Spanish La Liga.

With just at few hours to the big game, fans of both clubs have already been gripped by the fever that usually characterized this fixture in sometime past but has not reached such levels in recent encounters.

Kotoko who are many people’s favourite in Sunday’s game top the log with 14 points, one more than their fiercest rivals Hearts in second place and celebrating their centenary. All this adds up to the tension in the build-up to the game. 

I feel Kotoko have done well to stay on top going into this fixture and that should reduce the pressure on the Porcupines although it would have been a whole different ball game if Kotoko had opened for example a three or more point lead.  Moving forward, Kotoko should cement their superiority over Hearts with a lesson in football artistry. Not to sound complacent but the reality is that Kotoko is a better team, has better players, better technical team and better in all aspects so why should the better team not win?

I know too well that in Hearts-Kotoko games form guide don’t matter but rather who is the hungrier of the two teams and who wants it most carries the day, and if that is the case, then I want to see Kotoko come to the Ohene Djan Stadium looking like hungry Lions or wild Porcupines ready to tear their opponents apart.

We should work extra hard to beat the Phobians and not spare them at all. I have seen Kotoko let their sworn rivals off the hook when they had them virtually at their mercy on certain occasions but on Sunday we cannot afford to put a foot wrong, everything should be planned to the minutest detail because the Phobians are eye red following the two defeats suffered at the hands of the Porcupines this year alone.

The Phobians have nothing special to offer and often rely on crude and inferior tactics which sometimes amazingly works for them. They will play it rough and dirty but get away with everything with referees aiding them to escape on so many occasions. This time we are tired of referees doing the Hearts bidding, nobody will take it lying low, we simply want fair officiating and we are prepared to do our part of the bargain by turning on the style to market Ghana football to the outside world.

Another note of caution to the Porcupines is that they should discount all the psychological warfare or “juju” that the Phobians will wage on and off the field on Sunday. It is all an attempt to disrupt the focus of the team, juju does not play football. It is purely psychological. It is all in the head. If you pay attention to it, it will affect you, you just have to focus on your game plan and make sure you tear them apart. The other day they came carrying their own coffin to the field and we all saw what happened, this time round let them try it again and they will be sorry they did.

I have resisted the temptation to talk about tactics and players .I leave everything to Coach Maxwell Konadu and his technical crew. My worry however is that we have not won outside the Baba Yara Stadium this season and although we scored first in our two away games to Tema Youth and Berekum Arsenals, we failed to protect the lead and conceded cheap penalties to share the spoils with our opponents. There is definitely something wrong somewhere; we need to learn how to protect slender leads. Sometimes you have to adopt the “one goal project” to secure three points at a difficult terrain.

Let us prepare very well and unleash our arsenals against our bitterest rivals Hearts of Oak and more importantly we should be very business-like and professional in our approach because whether our rivals are 100, 200 or 500 years old, there should be no mercy for the cripple. 

Cheers!