The football season is finally here. So much has been said about the performance of both Ingwe and K’Ogalo during the just-concluded Kenya Power Charity Cup tournament.
From my own assessment, K’Ogalo will still perform better than Ingwe as usual. Tripple that with a home and away thumping and November will have come early for the ever fading perennial rivals. Hold your fire Ingwe fans!
I can explain with facts.
After signing the likes of Joseph Shikokoti, James Situma, KPL Player of the Year Jacob Keli and luring back to the KPL Ugandan midfielder Musa Mudde, most Ingwe fans expected total entertaining football when, their team faced Mathare United at Nyayo Stadium last weekend.
But that was not to be. Their players could hardly kick the ball from one blue jersey to another, or barely posses it for two minutes. They seemed tired, tactless and and lacked ideas. It was a dull affair not befitting the pride and ego of Gor Mahia fans who had to painfully tolerate the “thup-thup” kind of football for 90+ minutes.
I think Ingwe owe K’Ogalo fans an apology for exposing their eyes to stone-age of football characterized by lack of vision, precision and good on-pitch decisions. The star-studded Ingwe lost to a young Mathare United side on post-match penalties.
Then came the famous green and white soldiers, the most successful and entertaining football club in Kenya- Gor Mahia. What followed next was a series of cheers, classic passes, great midfield dominance from the likes of Akumu and Kizito, acrobatic saves from captain Jerim Onyango, speedy runs on the flanks from wonder kid George “Blackberry” Odhiambo, professional tackles from Godfrey Walusimbi, and so much more.
When Ingwe fans realized that their bitter rivals were playing the kind of football than can only be witnessed in the Spanish La Liga, they decided to disrupt their attention by engaging K’Ogalo fans in a war of words and all kinds of flying missiles. This eventually changed the mood of the game and as the fans engaged each other in running battles, K’Ogalo was one goal down- a distraction that affected their performance throughout the second half.
Ingwe’s tactics of distraction and destruction worked perfectly for them. But every fan who had the chance to watch the quality of football made in K’Ogalo can testify that their rivals still have a long way to go. If Ingwe is good, K’Ogalo is better and if Ingwe becomes better, then K’Ogalo will be at its best.
These two teams can never be on the same level.