The Curse of the New Boys - Hunting the Sharks

The Kenya Premier League is finally back after a delayed start orchastrated by the tussle over the number of teams to participate in the league and the club licensing fiasco. Gor Mahia has been drawn to play debutants Kariobangi Sharks in Thika and the Green Army will be expecting nothing short of a victory. The team has strengthened, notably in the midfield where it was felt that the departure of Ugandan midfield kingpin Khalid Aucho mid last season played a big role in derailing their quest for an unprecendented fourth consecutive league title. Aided by the fact that they will be playing a promoted team will no doubt add to a feeling of optimism.

But wait a second, when did Gor Mahia last win a match in their first encounter with a promoted team? Last year we beat newly promoted Kakamega Homeboyz 3-0 but that was after drawing with Posta Rangers 0-0.  Infact one has to go all the way back to 2010, when a double by Duncan Owiti "Macheda" (remember him?) and a goal by George Odhiambo "Blackberry" condemned Mahakama to a 3-1 defeat. Since then we have drawn 3 (Posta Rangers, Kakamega Homeboyz, Congo United) and lost 2 (Nakuru All Stars and Muhoroni Youth). Infact since 2011 we have not scored a goal in our first match of the season against a promoted team. Our record in the second match is slightly better, beating Kakamega Homeboyz last year and Bandari in 2011. The rest has been draws with a loss against Oserian in 2012.

Duncan Owiti "Macheda" was on the double the last time K'Ogalo won their first meeting against a newly promoted side

Gor Mahia has come a long way since that day in 2011 when Ezekiel Odera and Dan Makori were on the scoresheet against Congo United (the last time we scored a goal in our first match of the season against a promoted team) and fans will hope that the attacking force of Tuyisenge and Timothy Otieno who are the likely starters will finally break that duck.

Below are the results of our first encounters against newly promoted teams

2016
Posta Rangers 0-0
Kakamega Homoboyz 3-0

2014
Nakuru All Stars 0-2
KRA 0-0

2013
Kakamega Homeboyz 0-0
Bandari 0-0

2012
Muhoroni Youth 0-1
Oserian 0-1

2011
Congo 2-2
Bandari 1-0

2010
Mahakama 3-1
Posta Rangers 1-0

Rama's Double Figure, Top Shooters and the Double Boys

I was not at City Stadium to witness the game versus Oserian but kept a keen eye on the scores update. It was thus not a surprise for me to hear Rama Salim notch his 10th league goal of the season and 13th overall for K'ogalo. This makes him the highest Gor scorer in a season over the past 5 years, breaking loose off the 9 goals he jointly held with George Blackberry Odhiambo. In just one season, Rama has also equaled Baldin Ngwa's 10 goals that he scored in 3 seasons and is only 6 goals shy of "Berry's total of 16 goals in 2 seasons. He still has 8 games to achieve this. Here is a list of K'ogalo's top scorers in the league over the past 5 seasons.

	Player	Goals
1	George Odhiambo “Blackberry”	16
2	“Dr” Rama Salim	10
2	Baldin Ngwa	10
3	Julius “Awilo” Owino	9
4	Kevin Omondi “Daddy”	8
4	Duncan Owiti “Macheda”	8

The following is how Rama has scored his 10 league goals.

vs. Mathare Utd - 1
vs. Sofapaka - 1
vs.Chemelil - 1
vs. KCB - 5
vs. City Stars - 1
vs. Oserian - 1

Last week I did not blog after the Mathare draw but here are a few interesting stats from that game:
That was Gor's 7th successive draw in the league against the chokoras. Sserenkuma's double followed Duncan Owiti's double against the slum boys in 2009, the last time K'ogalo beat Mathare in a league game. It was also Sserenkuma's second double for Gor, following his double against City Stars in July. In scoring 2 against Mathare, he became the 4th K'ogalo to score a double more than once in the past 5 years in the league. Duncan Owiti "Macheda" leads the way with 3 during this period and KCB seems to be the teams K'ogalo players like scoring doubles against! Below is a list of the K'ogalos who have netted more than once in a game over the last 5 seasons, with Rama Salim being the only one to have bagged a hatrick!

Date	Player	Team
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

Bring on Sony!