Demystifying the Thika Myth and Reason to be Wary of Tusker

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

A Hatrick of Perfect Starts as Olunga, Abondo joins the Double Boys

The Kenyan Premier League finally kicked off over the weekend despite the stalemate dogging KPL and FKF over the number of teams to be in the league. Having already played two competitive games, K’ogalo began their title defense with a 4-2 victory over Mathare United courtesy of a brace each by the returning boy Ali Abondo and new signing Michael Olunga. A few years began there was talk that Gor Mahia rarely won their first league games, a jinx that was seemingly broken in 2012 with a 2-0 win over Thika. I have checked the records and can indeed confirm that between between 2003 and 2012, Gor had indeed found it difficult to win their opening games having won only once, beating Homegrown 4-2. Since 2012, the Victory against the slum boys was our 3^rd consecutive opening day victory. The following are our opening day results over the last 10 years.

2005 Lost to Kangemi United 1-2

2006 Drew with Securicor 1-1

2007 Won against Homegrown 4-2

2008  Lost to KCB 0-1

2009 Lost to Ulinzi 0-1

2010 Drew with Western Stima 0-0

2011 Lost to Rangers 3-0

2012 Won against Thika 0-2

2013 Won against Sofapaka 1-0

2014 Won against City Stars 2-0

2015 Won against Mathare United 4-2

As you can see from the results over the year, this result also matched our biggest opening day victory which was way back in 2007.

Ali Abondo on the double

(Pic courtesy of http://www.gormahiafc.co.ke/)

Seeing two players net a brace each also got me checking on the last game we had two players each score two goals. Well there have not been many games we have scored more than 4 goals and one would therefore have to look beyond 2008 for two doubles in a league game. Unfortunately my records for goal scorers are not comprehensive pre-2008. However in 2013 both Dan Sserenkuma and Kevin Omondi Ade helped themselves to two apiece in the 6-0 walloping of Shabana during a FKF GOTv Shield match. Ali Abondo and Michael Olunga however joins a select club of the double boys and since 2008, bringing the number of the double boys to 9. The members of this club are

1. Danny Sserenkuma (8)
2. Duncan Owiti (3)
3. Rama Salim (2)
4. George Odhiambo Blackberry (2) 
5. Kevin Omondi (2)
6. Baldin Ngwa (1)
7. Paul Kiongera (1)
8. Ali Abondo (1)
9. Michael Olunga (1)

      

      The following table gives a breakdown of the doubles

Date	Player	Team
21 Feb 2015	Michael Olunga	Mathare United
21 Feb 2015	Ali Abondo (2)	Mathare United
4 Oct 2014	Dan Sserenkuma (3)	City Stars
20 Sep 2014	Dan Sserenkuma (2)	Chemelil
19 July 2014	Dan Sserenkuma (2)	AFC Leopards
11 Sep 2013	Kevin Omondi (2)	Shabana
11 Sep 2013	Dan Sserenkuma (2)	Shabana
2 Mar 2013	Paul Kiongera (2)	Anse Re-union
4 Nov 2012	Dan Sserenkuma (3)	Muhoroni Youth
22 Sep, 2012	Dan Sserenkuma (2)	AFC Leopards
17 Aug, 2012	Dan Sserenkuma (2)	Mathare United
21 Jul, 2012	Dan Sserenkuma (2)	City Stars
8 Jul, 2012	Rama Salim (3)	KCB
12 may, 2012	Rama Salim (2)	KCB
17 Apr, 2011	Kevin Omondi (2)	Thika United
11 Jul, 2010	George Odhiambo (2)	Chemelil
3 Apr, 2010	Duncan Owiti (2)	Mahakama
8 Nov, 2009	Duncan Owiti (2)	KCB
27 Sep, 2009	Baldin Ngwa (2)	Red Berets
2 May, 2009	Duncan Owiti (2)	Mathare United
25 Apr, 2009	George Odhiambo (2)	Red Berets

Trivia: When was the last time K’ogalo scored more than 3 goals in a league game without a foreigner scoring?