As all Kenyan football fans know, the 'Mighty K'Ogallo army', who prefer to call themselves 'Gor followers', are a double faced monster. On one side, they are beautiful, passionate, intense and committed football fans. Who wouldn't want such a group of football supporters? Especially when they come in millions?
The other side of Gor supporters is that of spoilt, impatient, selfish and ungracious brats. They will start throwing stones at every one and every thing in sight at the slightest provocation. The latest incident where they rained stones onto the Nyayo stadium pitch after their player Ali Abondo was red carded for an obvious foul, is only one of the many instances where Sirkaal's army have ruined a good day out at the beautiful game.
How can this unwelcome spectacle at our stadiums be brought to a conclusive and permanent resolution? Many responses have followed the recent Gor fans misbehaviour. Sports Minister Paul Otuoma summoned FKF and FKL to a meeting, FKF punished FKL's GMT Ottieno and reprimanded Frank Okoth before ordering that future encounters between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards be staged in Mombasa..
The Stadia Management Board, on its part, banned Gor from playing at Nyayo and Kasarani Stadiums.
Unfortunately, none of these measures is likely to end Gor fans' hooliganism. If I was asked, I would recommend the club be renamed and its culture be modified to reflect modern Kenya. After all, it was formed as a tribal outfit when such associations were fashionable in our Kenya of the time.
Today's Kenya scoffs at tribal groupings, as expressly stated in our brand new constitution. So, to deal with Gor fans recurrent rioting, rename the club 'Nairobi United', or something like that, and encourage club membership from all corners of the republic.
24 March 2012
29 January 2012
Origi, please rescind your decision to quit Stars
Hi Origi, I can still vividly recall that October 2011 Saturday afternoon in Kampala, Uganda, when you single handedly saved Kenya from the shame of being trashed by Uganda in the presence of thousands of travelling fans, including Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
On that day, every other Harambee Stars player had their tail between their legs but boy, didn't you stand tall and firm in that goal!
Actually, 99% per cent of your performances in Kenya's goal have been so outstanding and reassuring to long suffering Kenyan fans. Every time you have been absent because of injury, we have conceded goals quite stupidly.
Unfortunately, because of these injuries, you have decided to abandon Harambee Stars without a worthy replacement in sight. I know how unrewarding it is to don a Kenyan national team shirt and take the field. What with unending politicking by football chiefs at the expense of caring for players' welfare?
For a Kenyan player, it is more often than not an act of sacrifice to heed a call to national team duty. Even when you are injured, you have to seek treatment back at your club while greedy football chiefs shed crocodile tears, bask in the glory in which they have had little, if any, input, or bandy around unbelievable excuses in case of defeat.
In spite of all that, as an adoring fan of yours, I beseech you to rescind your decision to quit Harambee Stars. Play for us some more, great son of Kenya.
On that day, every other Harambee Stars player had their tail between their legs but boy, didn't you stand tall and firm in that goal!
Actually, 99% per cent of your performances in Kenya's goal have been so outstanding and reassuring to long suffering Kenyan fans. Every time you have been absent because of injury, we have conceded goals quite stupidly.
Unfortunately, because of these injuries, you have decided to abandon Harambee Stars without a worthy replacement in sight. I know how unrewarding it is to don a Kenyan national team shirt and take the field. What with unending politicking by football chiefs at the expense of caring for players' welfare?
For a Kenyan player, it is more often than not an act of sacrifice to heed a call to national team duty. Even when you are injured, you have to seek treatment back at your club while greedy football chiefs shed crocodile tears, bask in the glory in which they have had little, if any, input, or bandy around unbelievable excuses in case of defeat.
In spite of all that, as an adoring fan of yours, I beseech you to rescind your decision to quit Harambee Stars. Play for us some more, great son of Kenya.
03 April 2011
Lessons from Kenya's match against Angola
It is true Kenya's 2-1 win against Angola in the ongoing African Cup of Nations qualifiers revived our qualification dreams but the question is: shall we be able to withstand the forthcoming pressure in the form of crunch away games in Uganda and Angola?
Three things came out clearly as Kenya battled from a goal down to win the match. First, this was not a decent display by the national team - it was a great escape. Apart from totally dominating in all departments in the first half, the Southern Africans could easily have been 3-0 up by half time but for the heroics of goalkeeper Arnold Origi and an off-the-line clearance by defender Dennis Odhiambo.
Secondly, the match revealed that a lot needs to be done to improve our defence, which might ultimately determine whether we qualify for 2012 or not. Joseph Shikokoti was very slow both on and off the ball, Situma performed better going forward than defending and Edgar Ochieng was caught out of position on several occasions. Dennis Odhiambo had a slightly decent performance, but still, the Angolans penetrated Kenya's defence through his side too frequently.
This should not be the case as Kenya has produced great defences over the years. Think of players like Hassan Juma, John 'Bobby' Ogolla, Austine Oduor Vincent Kwarula and Sammy Omollo, amongst the many defenders that have made Kenya proud in the not-so distant past.
Even very recently, under the stewardship of Francis Kimanzi, Kenya enjoyed solid defence performances courtesy of the partnership of George Owino and Edgar Ochieng in central defence and John Njoroge on left back. Clearly, coach Zedekiah 'Zico' Otieno must shuffle his defence unit if he hopes to continue enjoying the fickle support of Kenyan football fans.
The introduction of Jamal Mohammed and Victor Mugabe in the second half brought life and creativity to Kenya's mid field. these two enabled Kenya to score the two goals that won us the match. They proved that we have highly talented players that can use individual brilliance to change the course of a match. Any one who saw Nigeria's Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha's exploits in mid field will easily agree with me that on a good day Jamal Mohammed would have gone head-to-head with the great Nigerian mid field wizard.
Clearly, the onus is on Kenya's coaches to know when and where to play which mid fielder - in other words, if these gifted Kenyan mid fielders are properly selected and deployed on the pitch, Kenyans will have nothing to fear, as far as that department is concerned.
It is in the striking department that Kenya appears weakest. It is noteworthy that the two goals against Angola were scored by mid fielders. the striking trio of Bob Mugalia, Dennis Oliech and John "Black Berry" Odhiambo failed to deliver and Odhiambo had to be pulled out. Oliech threatened on several occasions but one could easily deduce that his menacing goal-bound runs and lethal strikes that have tormented African great defences, such as those of Tunisia, Morocco, Guinea and Nigeria, were missing.
It might be that the continued use of the Kenyan striker as an attacking mid fielder by his French club, Auxerre, has affected his approach of play, or it might be that he has just cooled off and will be back to his old lethal self. If so, it better be sooner rather than later. Still, we must discover another great striker soon. It is not healthy to continue our total dependence on Oliech.
Three things came out clearly as Kenya battled from a goal down to win the match. First, this was not a decent display by the national team - it was a great escape. Apart from totally dominating in all departments in the first half, the Southern Africans could easily have been 3-0 up by half time but for the heroics of goalkeeper Arnold Origi and an off-the-line clearance by defender Dennis Odhiambo.
Secondly, the match revealed that a lot needs to be done to improve our defence, which might ultimately determine whether we qualify for 2012 or not. Joseph Shikokoti was very slow both on and off the ball, Situma performed better going forward than defending and Edgar Ochieng was caught out of position on several occasions. Dennis Odhiambo had a slightly decent performance, but still, the Angolans penetrated Kenya's defence through his side too frequently.
This should not be the case as Kenya has produced great defences over the years. Think of players like Hassan Juma, John 'Bobby' Ogolla, Austine Oduor Vincent Kwarula and Sammy Omollo, amongst the many defenders that have made Kenya proud in the not-so distant past.
Even very recently, under the stewardship of Francis Kimanzi, Kenya enjoyed solid defence performances courtesy of the partnership of George Owino and Edgar Ochieng in central defence and John Njoroge on left back. Clearly, coach Zedekiah 'Zico' Otieno must shuffle his defence unit if he hopes to continue enjoying the fickle support of Kenyan football fans.
The introduction of Jamal Mohammed and Victor Mugabe in the second half brought life and creativity to Kenya's mid field. these two enabled Kenya to score the two goals that won us the match. They proved that we have highly talented players that can use individual brilliance to change the course of a match. Any one who saw Nigeria's Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha's exploits in mid field will easily agree with me that on a good day Jamal Mohammed would have gone head-to-head with the great Nigerian mid field wizard.
Clearly, the onus is on Kenya's coaches to know when and where to play which mid fielder - in other words, if these gifted Kenyan mid fielders are properly selected and deployed on the pitch, Kenyans will have nothing to fear, as far as that department is concerned.
It is in the striking department that Kenya appears weakest. It is noteworthy that the two goals against Angola were scored by mid fielders. the striking trio of Bob Mugalia, Dennis Oliech and John "Black Berry" Odhiambo failed to deliver and Odhiambo had to be pulled out. Oliech threatened on several occasions but one could easily deduce that his menacing goal-bound runs and lethal strikes that have tormented African great defences, such as those of Tunisia, Morocco, Guinea and Nigeria, were missing.
It might be that the continued use of the Kenyan striker as an attacking mid fielder by his French club, Auxerre, has affected his approach of play, or it might be that he has just cooled off and will be back to his old lethal self. If so, it better be sooner rather than later. Still, we must discover another great striker soon. It is not healthy to continue our total dependence on Oliech.
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