FootyDream

Asante Kotoko on Saturday morning thrashed lower division side Al Jazeera 7-1 in a friendly.

The Reds were involved in the training match to keep the side in shape following the suspension of the Ghanaian top-flight due to a court injunction.

Seydou Zerbo handed goalkeeper Moise Pouaty the starting role Augustine Agyapong, Patrick Asmah, Maxwell Agyemang and Andrews Appau.

In midfield, he fielded, Richard Boadu, Shadrack Addo, Eric Serge Zeze with Dickson Afoakwa, Stephen Amankona and Steven Mukwala leading the attack.

Kotoko dominated the duel netting three times in the first half.

Dickson Afoakwa opened the scoring before Stephen Amankona bagged a brace to end the half.

After recess, Samuel Boateng snatched a brace as well before Richmond Lamptey and Nicholas Mensah scored a goal each to complete the demolition.

With a few minutes to end the game, Al Jazeera pulled one back.

The Mighty Oak Tree will on Sunday attempt yet another herculean task of miracle performance when Hearts of Oak come face to face with AS Réal de Bamako at the nation’s Wembley, Accra Sports Stadium, in the second leg of the Confederation Cup of Africa Football (CAF) second round.

After going down by three goals without a reply in the first leg encounter in Bamako last Saturday, the teeming fans are as sure as the second coming of Christ, that the rainbow will appear by 18:00hours on Sunday after the end of the game, with the chorus; ….”Arose AroseArose, We are the famous Hearts of Oak, Be quiet and cheer us up, We never say die”, permeating every corner of the country.

It is a truism that the current form guide of Accra Hearts of Oak is nothing to write home about, compared to the days of the ‘64 Battalion’ that conquered Africa in 2000; and the ‘Fearsome Fivesome’ that enacted the Miracle of El-Wak in the Africa Club Champions Cup in 1977.

On that fateful day, Sunday November 6, 1977 Hearts lined up a formidable squad consisting of Robert Hammond, Mama ‘Bomber’ Acquah, Peter ‘Goal Thief’ Lamptey, Anas ‘Thunder’ Seidu and Mohammed ‘Dribbling Magician’Polo(the ‘Fearsome-Fivesome’).

They had one objective of overturning an earlier 5-2 defeat, suffered at the hands of Mufulira Wanderers of Zambia, during the first leg of the semifinals.

Hearts needed three unanswered goals to sail through to meet Hafia Club of Guinea in the finals.

The game traveled seventy-five minutes before the Phobians scored the first goal, followed by the second and finally crowned their effort in the 88th minute with the third goal.

Those were the days of G.W. Amarteifio and B.B. Bismarck at the helm of affairs of the rainbow shirted team.

Today, the oak tree needs redemption and all hands must be on deck. All true Phobians must avoidinternal squabbles to enable the team achieve the feat chalked by their predecessors in the Continental competition, which has eluded the country for quite some time now.

Going to the battlefront on Sunday are; Fatawu Mohammed, Daniel Barnie Afriyie, Enock Asubonteng, Konadu Yiadom, Kwame Obeng Junior, GladsonAwako, Mo Alhassan and Dennis Korsah, among a host of other dependable lads who are willing to die for club and country.

Information from the Hearts camp indicates that the morale of the players is on the ascendancy and they are ready to write their names in gold, like the all-conquering 64 Battalion Squad of the early two thousand.

What the team needs now from the teeming supporters is undiluted support by turning out in their numbers to cheer them up to victory.

The rainbow is expected to be cast over the Accra Sports Stadium after the annihilation of AS Réal de Bamako. Phooooobia.

-JOHN BEDIAKO