Did we expect much from Gor against Everton?

Gor Mahia's Shafik Batambuze takes on Everton's Cenk Tosun during the Sportpesa Trophy match at Goodison Park on November 6, 2018

“Was there a chance to come here for a win? Yes. Did we listen to instructions? No. Did we play the way Gor Mahia have played in Kenya, in CAF Confederations Cup the way I know they can play? No.

“The whole experience is something we should learn from and hopefully, take it to the next stage. It’s not night and day, it’s not miles apart, we are actually galaxies apart, we have to be realistic and stop kidding ourselves.”

That was how deflated Dylan Kerr summed his team’s performance on Tuesday night when Everton tore through the SportPesa Premier League (SPL) champions and left them staring at the wrong end of the barrel of a 4-0 pasting.

Having ran the same opponents close in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in his first game in charge of K’Ogalo that ended in a 2-1 defeat on July 13, 2017, much was expected of the team that swept all before them to romp to a record-stretching 17th domestic title when they faced the English Premier League side.

On Friday November 2, 2018 players, staff and officials of Gor, the most decorated club in the country’s football posed before cameras in their resplendent specially made blue and khaki suits at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport ready to board a flight to London.

For most, it represented a dream come true, an opportunity to showcase their talent in front of a global audience at the home of established English Premier League side, Everton FC and optimism was in no short supply ahead of their departure.

“It will be great to meet the entire Everton team and especially Walcott. I have always admired him and it will be amazing to show them that we can handle the challenge they pose,” Raphael Asudi, the 20-year-old utility player gushed.

The left-footed defender who can also play in midfield is among the youngsters who enjoyed a breakthrough season in Dylan Kerr’s side that swept all before them to defend their SportPesa Premier League title with six games to spare last season.

On Tuesday night however, Asudi and his teammates were given a football clinic they will never forget when an Everton side stacked with seasoned internationals and their own bright young talent handed them a chastening defeat.

To rehash the events of the historic fixture dubbed SportPesa Trophy, young forward, Ademola Lookman opened the scoring just past the quarter hour before Kieran Dowell, who scored the winner for Everton when they beat K’Ogalo 2-1 in Dar-es-Salaam last year, extended the lead for a 2-0 half-time advantage for the toffees.

Substitutes Nathan Broadhead and Oumar Niasse the scored quick-fire goals just before full time to complete the footballing lesson that more than anything, ruthlessly exposed the gulf in class between the top-flight leagues in Kenya and England.

When the annual eight-team invitational tournament that will be known as the SportPesa Cup from 2019 was mooted last year, the idea behind it was to use it as a vehicle to expose football talent from East Africa on the international stage.

When the inaugural Super Cup action kicked off on June 5, 2017 Gor raced through the quarters and the semis where they humbled Jang’ombe Boys of Zanzibar and Nakuru AllStars FC 2-0 apiece to set up a mouth-watering final against bitter arch rivals AFC Leopards SC.

K’Ogalo made mincemeat of the eternal enemy to pocket the USD30,000 (Ksh3m) first prize and the fantasy ticket to face Everton the first time they toured East Africa.

Despite suffering from playing at the punishing heat of the Tanzanian commercial capital, the Toffees prevailed with long-range strikes from the returning former England captain, Wayne Rooney and Dowell that sandwiched a Jacques Tuyisenge consolation.

The 2018 Super Cup was held in Nakuru between June 2 and 10 and once again, Gor proved untouchable, dismissing Jeshi la Kulinda Uchumi from Zanzibar and Singida United FC of Tanzania in the opening rounds to set up an enticing decider against fellow regional giants Simba SC in the decider which they won to set another date with Everton.

It was set out to be a golden opportunity to make it count, especially the young players hoping to catch the eye of European scouts who made their way to Liverpool to follow up on the massive interest stoked for the game.

However, Gor froze on the big occasion at Goodison but aside from the lopsided score, harsh lessons for Kenyan football played out in front of an international audience.

One hopes Gor will return home and launch the tentative steps to transform the club into an institution their decorated name deserves, having experienced first hand what it takes to turn a football outfit into a sporting and commercial success.

Gor Mahia’s performance showed that there is simply nowhere to hide for Kenyan football if it has to match huge expectations with results.

“These guys take football seriously while to us, we take it as joke,” K’Ogalo skipper, Harun Shakava said.

One look at the K’Ogalo dressing room prior to kick-off for example told a story on its own about the casual attitude local teams approach the game.

Although the jerseys were hang on the pegs reserved for them, every other item was strewn across the room displaying the lack of a kit-man whose job is to set everything up in a tidy, orderly manner.

On Monday, Kerr advised his players to buy proper football boots fit for the well-manicured Goodison turf and to his horror, some declined.

 

Wrong boots

The folly of their mistake was evident as the game wore on, as Gor players went into mistimed challenges, failed to spray proper passes or simply, tumbled over or were left for dead in the chase for the ball.

“We had spoken about boots before the game and we have a shortage of equipment but maybe, we took it as a joke but it affected us.

“The pitch needed boots with studs of two or three inches in depth but we went to the game with what we are used to in Kenya,” Shakava said.

Gor players and staff were treated to the life of a Premier League footballer, a world so removed from the humdrum of SPL football when they arrived in England.

Their first tour to the USM Finch Farm, Everton’s training facility that has enough pitches to host all nine fixtures in one round of domestic fixtures saw them taken through a medical they only hear when mega transfer moves in Europe are announced before being allowed to the pitch.

That was in sharp contrast to the common practice here where they head straight to the training ground and start the training drills coaches have set up for the day.

“This is absolutely amazing. Look at that grass, I mean if we had at least two of these back home, we would be unbeatable,” Gor assistant coach Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno said when they were allowed access to the training pitches.

“The grass is perfect. The quality has made me forget about the cold and heavy wind blowing, I just want a ball at my feet,” Francis Kahata said.