Time to Exorcice Karuturi Demons

This Saturday we take on Karuturi as we march towards the title. Karuturi has probably been K'ogalo's toughest opponent over the years and my stats can confirm this. We lost to them in the first leg of this season and last season we failed to beat them, drawing both games. The last time we beat Karuturi was on 30th May 2010 when Kevin Omondi scored the winning goal. It is the only time we have beaten them since 2007, with our previous victory before that being in 2007 when they were known as Sher. Our record against them since 2008 reads as P9, W1, D5, L3 (DLDLWDDDL). This is definitely not pleasant reading.  

The result of these previous 9 encounters are as follows:

2012
4 March lost 1-0

2011
13 August draw 1-1 (Collins Okoth)
13 March draw 1-1 (Eric Masika)

2010
16 October draw 0-0
30 May win 1-0 (Kevin Omondi)

2009
30 November lost 1-0
22 March draw 1-1 (Chris Wekesa)

2008
26 July lost 1-0
22 March draw 0-0

As you can see, only 4 K'ogalos have scored against Karuturi, making them the most miserly team Gor has faced amongst the teams that have been ever present in the league since 2008. A Karuturi win will make them the first team to do a double over Gor Mahia this season, in fact no team has done a double over Gor Mahia since Thika United in 2009.

Going into this game:
A Sirkal victory and a Tusker loss will see Gor Mahia move top of the table with 3 games to go.

A Danny Sserunkuma goal will see him move onto 8 goals, joining 6 other players who have scored 8 or more for K'ogalo over the past 5 seasons and only 1 goal short of Balckberry's 9 in 2010. 

A Kevin Omondi goal will see him join Dan Makori and Julius Owino as K'ogalos who have scored for Gor Mahia in 3 consecutive seasons since 2008.

A win will see K'ogalo extend their league winning streak to 6, the longest since the new KPL/TPL began in 2007.

Sirkal vs Rangers Preview: The Stats

On Wednesday night K’ogalo takes on Rangers in a match they must win to keep up the pressure on Tusker as they match towards their 13^th league title. For K’ogalo the equation is clear, win all their remaining 5 matches and they become champions for the 13^th time – and the first since 1995.Rangers have been in the top flight since the 2010 season when they came in as Posta Rangers and reverted to just Rangers after Posta bailed out as their sponsors the following season. Rangers are currently bottom of the league and their form of late suggests that K’ogalo should easily beat them. But what is K’ogalo’s record against Rangers. 

The following is K’ogalo’s record against Rangers in numbers.

1 for draw: there has only been 1 draw between the two, coming earlier this season when Baldin Ngwa scored late on for  1-1 draw at Nyayo Stadium. Rangers has also beaten K’ogalo only once, a 3-0 defeat at the start of the 2011 season.

2 for double scorers:  Baldin Ngwa is the only Gor player who has scored twice against Rangers, scoring in a 2-0 victory on 22^nd August 2010 and the equalizer earlier this year. 2 is also for the average points K’ogalo has taken from Rangers over the past 3 seasons. 

3 for wins: Gor has beaten Rangers 3 times, 1-0 and 2-0 in 2010 and 3-0 in 2011.

4 for goals conceded: K’ogalo has allowed Rangers to hit the back of their net 4 times in their 5 games since Rangers were promoted. 

5 for streaks: If Gor beats Rangers, this will be their 5^th consecutive victory in the league. Gor are currently on a 4 game winning streak (Oserian, Ulinzi, Sony and Leopards), equalling a 4 game winning streak between June 23 and July 21 this year (W. Stima, KCB, Chemelil and City Stars). The longest winning Sirkal managed last season was 3, between October 30 to 17 November (Sony, City Stars and Rangers). The last time Sirkal had a 5 game winning streak was between 28 September and 1 November 2008 (W. Stima, Red Berets, Bandari, Mahakama and Mathare Youth).

6 for Rangers destroyers: 6 K’ogalos have scored 7 goals against Rangers – George Odhiambo “Blackberry”, Julius Owino, Baldin Ngwa, Anthony Akumu, John Kiplangat, and Dan Makori. Only Anthony Akumu is a starter in the current team while Ngwa (on loan) and Julius Owino are currently turning out for Rangers.

7 for Sserunkuma goals: Dan Sserunkuma has scored 7 goals in the league for K’ogalo this season, the second highest this season behind Rama Salim. A goal against Rangers will take his tally to 8. Only 6 players have scored more than 7 goals in the league for K’ogalo over the past 5 seasons (George Odhiambo “blackberry”, Baldin Ngwa, Rama Salim, Julius Owino, Kevin Omondi and Duncan Owiti). 

versus Rangers in a previous match

For the die hard stats minded K’ogalo’s, feel free to contribute your stats in the comment section.

Sserunkuma Double Show as K’ogalo Rein in Ingwe: The Stats

On Saturday Dan Sserunkuma fired a double to help K’ogalo not only beat Ingwe and claim the derby bragging rights, but significantly to leapfrog them on the log with 5 games to go and edge ahead on head to head scores since the beginning of the new look KPL (now TPL) 5 seasons ago. Here is a run down on the stats milestones during the game. 

Sserunkuma has amazingly now scored 7 goals for K’ogalo in less than half a season since joining Gor, that’s 7 goals in 10 games, an amazing feat by local standards. What’s more, his goals for K’ogalo always seem to come in doubles! It was only in his debut against Western Stima that he scored one goal, the rest of the games that he has scored in, he has scored twice in each. He scored doubles against City Stars, Mathare United and AFC Leopards. I am sure the double against Ingwe will remain the most famous amongst K’ogalo fans. 

His double was also the fifth that a K’ogalo has scored this season. The others were scored by Rama, 2 against KCB in the first leg and a hatrick against the same opponents in the second leg. Interestingly, last season a K’ogalo scored a double only once, Kevin Omondi against Thika United in Thika. A few weeks back I wrote about K’ogalo’s double boys which you can read HERE.

The game against Ingwe was the 8^th league game since Ingwe’s return to the top flight four seasons ago. Win this victory, we now have 4 wins against Ingwe’s 3 with one game having ended in a draw. The 2 Sserunkuma goals also brings our tally of goals against Ingwe to 9 against 8 that they have scored. This rivalry looks set to continue being a close one. 

Meanwhile a couple of photos on the stadium atmosphere last Saturday 

Fans wait to get into Kasarani minutes before kick off

From my vantage point

It's Squeaky Bum Time: K'ogalo's Run-In Stats

We have reached that stage of the league which Roberto Mancini so famously described during the last EPL season as “squeaky bum time”  - that time when the only teams not feeling any sort of heat are the teams that can neither win the league nor get relegated. And contrary to the expectations after 10 games at the beginning of the season, K’ogalo are right in the mix. The title racearithmetics for K’ogalo is now simple, we win all our remaining games and we become champions regardless of other results. But the run in is never simple. With six games to go, I now take a look at how we have done in our last six games over the last 4 seasons, with the most dramatic being the 2010 season when we were competing for the championship until the last day of the season. 

In 2008, we had started the season poorly, winning only 3 of our first 10 games and 5 of the first 20 games. However going into the last 6 games we had stabilized a bit and though there was still a remote possibility of relegation, we knew we would survive. In the final run in we faced Bandari, Mahakama, Mathare Youth, Agrochemicals, Chemelil and City Stars. The results (3 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws) were as follows:

10 October vs Bandari – Won 1-0 (Julius “Awilo” Owino)

18 October vs Mahakama – Won 1-0 (???)

01 November vs Mathare Youth – Won 4-3 (Zablon Otieno, Julius Owino, John Rigo, Habil Otieno)

09 November vs Agrochemicals – Lost 0-1

15 November vs Chemelil – Drew 0-0

30 November vs City Stars – Drew 0-0

In 2009 we had pretty much established ourselves as a stable team and it was now obvious the dark years of instability at the turn of the millennium were now behind us. We had however started the league on a shaky note and only won 3 of the first 10 games (including a 3-2 win over Ingwe at Kasarani) but were finishing the league strongly once again. Our final 6 games included fixtures against Red Berets, Tusker, Agrochemicals, Bandari, KCB and Karuturi. The results (4 wins, 2 losses) were as follows:

27 September vs Red Berets – Won 3-0 (Baldin Ngwa [2], Francis Ocholla)

18 October vs Tusker – Won 1-0 (George Odhiambo “Backberry”)

24 October vs Agrochemicals – Won 2-1 (Ibrahim Kitawi, Eric Masika)

31 October vs Bandari – Lost 1-2 (Peter Opiyo “Pinchez”)

08 November vs KCB – Won 2-1 (Duncan Owiti “Macheda” [2])

30 November vs Karuturi – Lost 0-1

2010 began with 4 consecutive draws and only 3 wins in the first 10 games but a very strong 2^nd leg saw us go into the last six games in contention for the title, a mirror of the season we have had this year. This run also included a game against the old enemy, Ingwe, in between games against Mahakama, Karuturi, Thika, Sony and City Stars. The results (4 wins and 2 draws) were as follows:

26 September vs Mahakama – Won 2-0 (Ibrahim Kitawi, Kevin Omondi “Daddy”)

16 October vs Karuturi – Drew 0-0

23 October vs AFC Leopards – Won 1-0 (Collins Okoth)

30 October vs Thika – Won 1-0 (Ivan Anguyo)

06 November vs Sony – Won 2-0 (Kevin Omondi “Daddy”, Baldin Ngwa)

17 November vs City Stars – Drew 0-0

Collins Okoth celebrates the goal that downed Ingwe

In any other year prior to 2008, the season we had in 2011 would have been taken as successful but given the progression of the club over the last few years, a 4^th place finish (despite winning the FKL Cup) was considered a disaster and Zico had to go. The season began with a 3-0 loss to Rangers and despite 5 wins in the first 10 games, there would be a mid season slump of 8 games without victory and 4 losses that saw us drop off the pace. Towards the end, the race seemed to be about finishing above the old enemy and we would eventually finish 4^th, one place above Ingwe despite their strong run under their new tactician Jan Koops. Going into our last 6 games, which game on the back of a 3-0 loss to Ingwe, we faced Bandari, Chemelil, Sony, City Stars, Rangers and Sofapaka. The results (3 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss) were as follows: 

15 October vs Bandari – Lost 0-1

24 October vs Chemelil – Drew 0-0

30 October vs Sony – Won 2-1 (Ivan Anguyo, Dan Makori)

02 November vs City Stars – Won 1-0 (Moses Otieno)

17 November vs Rangers – Won 3-0 (Dan Makori, John Kiplangat, Anthony Akumu)

26 November vs Sofapaka – Drew 0-0

We are obviously a team that can handle the pressure of the run-in, always winning more than we lose or draw at the death. Now let’s rally behind the boys and see how they will handle the pressure of a run in and do better than the class of 2010 as we hope for a record that reads WWWWWW

On Anguyo and the Licking of Sony Sugar

Before last Sunday's game, Sony Sugar FC had been one of the teams that had a better record head to head on us in the last 5 seasons. Ivan Anguyo however corrected that by ensuring we draw level with them in terms of wins. Our record versus Sony now reads played 10, won 4, lost 4 and drew 2 with an average of 1.4 points per game over them. The following is our record with Sony over the past 5 seasons.

2012
09 September 1-0 (Ivan Anguyo)
23 March 0-0

2011
30 October 2-1 (Ivan Anguyo, Dan Makori)
25 August 0-0

2010
06 November 2-0 (Baldin Ngwa, Kevin Omondi)
14 March 1-1 (Francis Ocholla)

2009
19 September 1-2 (Baldin Ngwa)
10 May (Duncan Owiti, George Odhiambo) - note this is not "Blackberry"

2008
20 Septemember 0-1
25 June 0-1

Anguyo Scores

Sserunkuma and Lavatsa join Anguyo in celebrating his goal against Sony

Anguyo's goal was his 4th for the club in the league, 2 this season, and 1 each in the last 2 season. This was also his 4th goal in all competitions for Gor this year, making him the 3rd highest scorer for K'ogalo behind Rama and Sserunkuma. He joines Baldin Ngwa as the K'ogalo who has scored twice against Sony during this period. Also Sony is one of the few clubs that have done a double over K'ogalo over the past 5 seasons. No club has done a double over K'ogalo this season - with only Muhoroni Youth, Tusker and Karuturi the only 3 teams remaining with that opportunity.

Two points behind Leopards, with six games to go and the derby coming up, these are indeed exciting times!

On Streaks: K’ogalo’s Longest Unbeaten Streaks

I already did a piece about the Gor vs Ulinzi stats just before and after the Top 8 Final (for those who missed read it here and here) so little has changed since then. Today I will however focus on the league streaks.

Currently K’ogalo is on an 11 game streak without a loss in the league. A victory against Ulinzi Stars will see this run extend to 12. But is this our longest streak without a loss in the league over the past 6 seasons? The answer is no. In the 2010 season when we finished 2^nd, we actually went the whole of the second leg of the season without a loss, a streak of 16 games, winning 11 games and drawing only 4. This streak ran from 26^th May when we lost to AFC Leopards 1-0 and was only ended during the first game of the next season, when we infamously lost 3-0 to Rangers. Below is a record of that 16 game streak with the goal scorers for each game

Date	Opponent	Scores	Scorer
30 – May	Karuturi	1-0	Kevin Omondi
11 – July	Chemelil	4-1	George Odhiambo “Blackberry” (2) Dan Makori Julius Owino Awilo
18 – July	Tusker	2-0	George Odhiambo “Blackberry” Kevin Omondi
31 – July	Western Stima	1-0	Andrew Ongwae
14 – August	Mathare United	1-1	Baldin Ngwa
18- August	Ulinzi Stars	2-0	Baldin Ngwa George Odhiambo “Blackberry”
22 – August	Rangers	2-0	Baldin Ngwa Julius Owino Awilo
29 – August	Red Berets	0-0
11- September	KCB	2-0	Musa Mohammed George Odhiambo “Blackberry”
15 – September	Sofapaka	1-1	Julius Owino “Awilo”
26 – September	Mahakama	2-0	Ibrahim Kitawi Kevin Omondi
16 – October	Karuturi	0-0
23 – October	AFC Leopards	1-0	Collins Okoth “Gattuso”
30 – October	Thika United	1-0	Ivan Anguyo
6 – November	Sony	2-0	Kevin Omondi Baldin Ngwa

For our longest winning streak in the league over the past 5 seasons, you however have to go back to 2008 between 28^th September to 1^st November when we won 5 in a row. The teams that suffered our wrath during this period were as follows

Date	Opponent	Scores	Scorer
28 – September	Western Stima	1-0	Zablon “Pro” Otieno
5 – October	Red Berets	2-0	??
10 – October	Bandari	1-0	Julius Owino “Awilo”
18 – October	Mahakama	1-0	??
1 – November	Mathare Youth	4-3	Zablon “Pro” Otieno Julius Owino “Awilo” John Rigo Habil Otieno

 Now let's beat Ulinzi and see if Logarusic's team will match Zico's class of 2010.