In 2012, Thika United managed to draw with K’Ogalo thus
denying them three points that they needed to win the league. Since then
whenever Thika has lined up to take on Gor Mahia, there has been general chest
thumping that Thika “ni dawa ya Gor”. Recently
someone posted on Facebook the number of trophies Gor Mahia has won against
Thika’s, which went something like 30 trophies to 0. Of course as expected
someone mentioned the fact that Thika’s history is much more recent and so I
decided to take a look at the head to head between the two clubs since 2008 and
see whether over the years Thika has really been dawa ya Gor. Just to have something to compare it to, I threw in
our next opponent, Tusker, who are the next club to actually challenge us
closely for titles after the old enemy AFC Leopards. Well, the results of the
comparison only served to reveal that it is indeed a big myth that Thika has
caused Gor Mahia any trouble over the past few years and if anything, we need
to be more wary of the brewers as opposed to Thika. Take a look at this table
(takes into account only league games):
|
|
Games Played
|
Gor Wins
|
Gor Losses
|
Draws
|
Goals Scored
|
Goals Conceded
|
Goal Difference
|
Points
|
|
Thika United
|
15
|
8
|
3
|
4
|
16
|
9
|
7
|
28
|
|
Tusker FC
|
14
|
4
|
3
|
7
|
10
|
11
|
-1
|
19
|
While we have lost only 3 times to each of them in the last
8 seasons, Tusker has been more frustrating holding us to 7 draws compared to
Thika’s 4 draws. We have managed to pick
28 points from Thika, that’s 62.2% of points available compared to 19 points
(45.2%) from Tusker. Our win rate over
Thika is 53.3% compared to only 28.6% against Tusker while we have only drawn
26.7% against Thika compared to 50% against Tusker. It therefore beats no logic for Thika to
imagine that they have had any dominance over K’Ogalo. And while fans might
think it is a foregone conclusion that Gor will get a result against Tusker in
Kisumu, it will be good to keep in mind that Gor has not beaten Tusker in 8
competitive games since Sserunkuma’s solitary goal at the City Stadium in
October 2012.
Meanwhile Ali Abondo’s goal brought his tally to 11 goals in
league matches for Gor Mahia, bringing him ahead of Baldin Ngwa who had 10
goals. He climbs to fifth behind Danny (36), Rama (21), Blackberry (18) and
Kevin Ade Omondi (13) as the leading scorers for the club since the new look
KPL began in 2008.
Ali Abondo has now scored 9 league goals for K'Ogalo this season and 12 career league goals for K'ogalo
