Tuesday 24 September 2013

The Boys With The Golden Boots

Over the last one month, our boy Danny Sserunkuma has scored four goals, one in the league and three in the FKF cup to establish himself as one of Kógalo's premier predator in the new KPL era. And it is no surprise that his single league goal was the customary one against the old enemy, AFC Leopards. Last year Dani gave us all his 12 goals in the league but this season he has shared his 7 goals around, 4 in the league and 3 in the FKF Cup, now known as GoTV Shield. Since joining Gor last season, Dani has banged in 19 goals, making him the second highest scorer for K'ogalo in the KPL era, just one goal shy off Rama Salim. He is also joint second highest scorer for K'ogalo in the league tied in with George Odhiambo "Blackberry" on 16 goals, again 1 shy off Rama Salim who scored 17 before his departure to the Middle East.

Scoring against Leopards has become a ritual for Danny Sserunkuma

Another player that has reached a landmark this season is Kevin Omondi whose 7 goals for K'ogalo this season makes him joint top scorer with Danny. Ade has scored 4 goals in the league, 2 in the GoTV Shield and 1 in the CAF Confederation Cup, his richest vein of form for K'ogalo. This has brought his total goals for K'ogalo to 17 with 12 of those coming in the league, 4 in domestic cup and 1 in the CAF Confederations Cup.

If these two players continue like this, they will both be getting their 20th goals for K'ogalo.

Below is the list of K'ogalo sharp shooters over the last few years.

KPL League

1. Rama Salim - 17
2. George Odhiambo "Blackberry" - 16
3. Danny Sserunkuma - 16
4. Kevin Omondi - 12
5. Baldin Ngwa - 10

All Competitions

1. Rama Salim - 20
2. Danny Sserunkuma - 19
3. Kevin Omondi - 17
4. George Odhiambo "Blackberry"- 16
5. Edwin Lavatsa - 12

Thursday 25 July 2013

All Hail King Rama!

Last Sunday K'ogalo swept aside Western Stima to open a four point gap at the top of the table following Thika's barren draw with KCB the previous day. Keen observers will have noted that when Rama Salim scored the opening goal, his 5th of the season, he moved above George Odhiambo "Blackberry" as Gor Mahia's top scorer in the past 5 seasons (my stats currently go back to only 2008). Indeed it is safe to conclude that he is actually K'ogalo's top scorer since the club went to decline in the late 90s and early 00s but I will confirm that once I finish putting those stats together.

Rama's 5th goal of the season was his 17th in the league overall surpassing Blackberry's 16 goals that he achieved over 2 seasons. It was also Rama's 20th for the club in competitive games having scored one in the FKF Cup and 2 in the Top 8 last season. Here is a breakdown of Rama's league goals:

4 April 2012 vs Mathare United - 1
15 April 2012 vs Sofapaka - 1
6 May 2012 vs Chemelil - 1
12 May 2012 vs KCB - 2
8 July 2012 vs KCB - 3
21 July 2012 vs City Stars - 1
29 August 2012 vs Oserian - 1
3 October 2012 vs Rangers - 1
10 November 2012 vs Thika United - 1
14 April 2013 vs KCB - 1
21 April 2013 vs Sony - 1
23 June 2013 vs Karuturi - 1
17 July 2013 vs Chemelil - 1
21 July 2013 vs W. Stima - 1

It seems the club Rama has enjoyed playing against the most in K'ogalo colours is KCB, scoring 6 goals in only 3 outings!

photo courtesy michezoafrika.com

Friday 19 April 2013

Banking the Points For A Decent Start


I was at the City Stadium (Tok Komwanda) last Sunday to see K’ogalo end KCB’s unbeaten run and get their ninth point of the season from four games, courtesy of goals from Donald Mosoti and Rama Salim’s last gasp penalty. Later I went through K’ogalo’s stats, first to find out if this is their best start to the season in recent years and how they have matched up against KCB since the new KPL era began. This is what I found out.

Gor Mahia have been notoriously slow starters of late. If they had managed to bag points against Karuturi, Muhoroni Youth and Tusker at the beginning of last season, they would have definitely won the league. Anyway, I can say that 3 wins out of 4 games for 9 points is our best start to the league in ages. This is how we have matched up in the past for our first 4 games.

2012: After winning our opener against Thika United, we went on to lose the next 3 games against Karuturi (0-1), Muhoroni Youth (0-1) and Tusker (0-2) for a record of 1 win, 3 losses for 3 points

2011: Starting the season with a loss to Rangers (0-3) we beat Ulinzi (1-0), drew with Karuturi (1-1) and beat Western Stima (1-0) to give us 2 wins, a loss and a draw for 7 points

2010: Started the season by drawing the first four games, Western Stima, Ulinzi and Mathare all goalless draws then a 1-1 draw with Sony for 4 points

2009: Started the season with two identical 1-0 losses to Ulinzi and Thika United before winning the next two games, 1-0 versus Chemelil Sugar and 3-2 against our traditional rivals AFC Leopards for 6 points

2008: We started the season with a loss to KCB (1-0), beat Agrochemicals 2-0 and then had two barren draws against Chemelil and Karuturi for 5 points

2007:Started the season whitewashing Homegrown 4-2 before losing the next three games, Mahakama (0-1), Red Berets (0-2) and Ulinzi (0-1) for only 3 points.

Our recent record against KCB is also healthy, last season we did a double over them, plundering 6 goals in the process. In fact one has to go back to May 2010 for the last time we lost against KCB. Here is how we have fared against them in recent seasons.


Watch highlights of K'ogalo robbing the bankers

2012:
08 July won 3-1 (Rama Salim 3)
12 May won 3-2 (Rama Salim 2, George Midenyo 1)

2011
24 Sept drew 2-2 (Collins Okoth, Eric Masika)
03 April won 1-0 (Solomon Nasio)

2010
11 Sept won 2-0 (Musa Mohammed, George “blackberry”Odhiambo)
16 May lost 0-1

2009
08 Nov won 2-1 (Duncan Owiti “Macheda”, 2)
18 April lost 2-1 (George Odhiambo – the goalkeeper, not Blackberry)

2008
13 Sept drew 0-0
01 March lost 0-1

Together with this season results, our record against KCB since 2008 reads as Played 11, Won 6, Lost 3, drew 2

This weekend we look forward to hosting Sony and sending them back to Awendo empty handed

Sunday 10 March 2013

Sirkal Begins Title Hunt With Victory: Opening Numbers


Kógalo began their 2013 season with a 1-0 win over Sofapaka yesterday, courtesy of a Paul Kiongera goal, his first in the league for Kógalo. This is the second successive season that Gor has won their opening game after having recently gained the distinction of being slow starters in the league. Last season Sirkal beat Thika United 2-0 but before that you have to go back to 24th September 2006 when they beat Homegrown 4-2 in the opening fixture of the 2006-2007 season. Sirkal lost to KCB 1-0 in 2008, to Ulinzi 1-0 in 2009, drew 0-0 with Western Stima in 2010 and lost 3-0 to Rangers in 2011. 


Kiongera celebrates strike against Sofapaka

The win over Sofapaka brings Kógalo's unbeaten streak in the league to a remarkable 20 games, the last loss coming against Ulinzi on 21st April 2012. Remarkably too, coach Logarusic has only lost 2 league games since he took over the helms at Kógalo. The win over Sofapaka also means that they are yet to beat Kógalo since their debut league encounter in 2009 when Sofapaka won 2-1. Gor has since gone on to win 3 games and drawn 5 games. 

Image courtesy of Supersport

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Review: Last Season In Numbers

2012 is gone, with all the excitement, drama and eventual disappointment as we lost the league on the last day of the season. This disappointment was made slightly more bearable by the fact that we we won 2 cups and none of us ever thought we'd finish as runners -up given the terrible start we had at the beginning of the season. Before we delve into the new season, here are some numbers that were served up last season. 

37 - K'ogalo scored a total of 37 league goals in the season, compared to the 27 it scored in 2011. Gor's best year in terms of league goal hauls in the last 5 seasons was however in 2009 when it scored 38 goals, one more than last season. In 2010 Gor scored 33 goals while the worst season in the last 5 years in terms of goals scored was in 2008 when it scored a paltry 18 goals. 

12 - Rama Salim and Dan Sserunkuma both scored 12 league goals, the highest by a Gor player in the last 5 seasons. Previously, George "Blackberry" Odhiambo had scored 8 in 2010 and 2009. This was also the first time a K'ogalo player had breached the double figure digit in the last 5 seasons. Sserunkuma finished the league with 17 goals, having scored 5 goals for City Stars in the first leg of the season, emerging as the second highest scorer behind Sofapaka's John Baraza. 

15 - Rama Salim scored a total of 15 goals in all competitions for Gor, emerging as its highest overall scorer. In just one season, Rama is only a goal behind George "Blackberry" Odhiambo's current record haul of 16 goals, scored over 2 season. (Note that these stats apply for only the past 5 seasons). The top 5 goal getters for Gor in the past 5 seasons are as follows:

   1. George Odhiambo "Blackberry" - 16
   2. Rama Salim - 15
   3. Dan Sserunkuma - 12
   4. Baldin Ngwa - 10
   5. Julius Owino "Awilo" - 9
   5. Kevin Omondi "Daddy" - 9

15 - 15 players managed to score 51 goals for Gor in all competitions. These were: Rama Salim (15), Dan Sserunkuma (12), Ivan Anguyo (4), Edwin Lavatsa (3), Baldin Ngwa, George Midenyo, Ali Abondo, Moses Odhiambo, Kevin Omondi and Itubu Imbem (2) and 1 each for Chris Wekesa, Hugo Nzoka, Dan Makori, Joseph Njuguna and Moses Otieno. 

More review stats will follow shortly