Battered Gor rue another failed campaign in Africa

Gor Mahia's Betrand Konfour (right) vies for the ball with CR Belouizdad's Amir Soyoud during their second leg match of the Caf Champions League first round tie staged at Nyayo stadium on January 6, 2021.

What you need to know:

  • Stand-in coach Omollo absolves players, blames early exit on shoddy preparations.
  • Champions League casualties K’Ogalo to know Confed Cup opponents today.

Record Kenya champions Gor Mahia were left reflecting on what could have gone wrong after yet another early elimination from the prestigious Caf Champions League.

Algerian side CR Belouizdad hit Gor 2-1 at Nyayo Stadium on Wednesday to dump them out 8-1 on aggregate.

Burundian striker Jules Ulimwengu's 22nd minute lead was cancelled out by Amir Sayoud in the 72nd minute before second half substitute Abdelkader Belharane ended Gor’s misery five minutes to the final whistle.

Gor have now been relegated to the less prestigious Confederation Cup for the fourth consecutive year.

They will know their play-off opponents Friday when the draw is conducted in Cairo, Egypt.

The main undoing for Gor over the years is shoddy preparations due to financial challenges, management wrangles and delays in settling players’ salaries that has led to perennial strikes.

This was even cited by the club stand-in coach Sammy ‘Pamzo’ Omollo in his post-match interview after the CR Belouizdad defeat.

“This team has to reassess its preparations for the continental competitions in future. However, I can't blame the players since the problem was with the whole team's preparations. The work we did was evident and I feel honoured to have led them in the four Caf games,” said Omollo.

Ulimwengu, who has now bagged five goals in all competitions for Gor Mahia since joining them in August, agreed with Omollo’s sentiments.

“Now that we have been relegated to the Confederation Cup, we have to prepare well and at least win our home games however tough the opponent is. This needs good preparations. Due to the issues in the public domain, we have lacked good preparations. However, we are hopeful the future will be better," said the 23-year-old forward.

A section of fans and football pundits blamed the players for the dismal performance and felt they playing unit should persevere and attend training sessions in full even as they agitate for their pay.

It is also a wonder that Gor technically did not have a coach.

Brazilian Roberto Oliveira left after he was barred from handling the Kenyan giants because he did not have Caf certification.

Added to that, Oliveira’s assistant Patrick Odhiambo also left the club last week to join Premiership side  Bandari as an assistant coach.

Oliveira had replaced British coach Steven Polack who had left the club on September 4 over salary issues. 

Gor are yet to fill the two position. In 2018, K’Ogalo were eliminated from the Caf Champions League first round by eventual winners Esperance of Tunisia.

The same fate would follow the 19-time Kenyan Premier League champions in the 2019 season, missing the competition’s group stage by a whisker after 3-3 aggregate against Lobi Stars of Algeria with the away rule working to their disadvantage.

In 2020, USM Algiers of Algeria thumped K’Ogalo 6-1 on aggregate.