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

Sofapaka’s Draw Against K’Ogalo – Stats on Gor’s Draw Masters

By holding Gor to a goalless draw last evening, Sofapaka has now joined Karuturi as the masters of the drawn game against Gor. Their defensive approach ensured they got their fifth draw against Gor in 8 league games since they stepped into the top tier four seasons ago. Only Mathare United (6 draws, 66.7% of games played) has held K’ogalo to more draws over the past five seasons.  Here are top 6 teams in terms of percentage ratios (draws against number of games played) who have set out to frustrate Gor with draws (only teams who have played Gor in 2 or more seasons).

Team	Games Played	Draws	Percentage ratios
Mathare United	9	6	66.7%
Sofapaka	8	5	62.5%
Karuturi	9	5	55.6%
Tusker FC	9	4	44.4%
Ulinzi Stars	9	3	33.3%
Red Berets	6	2	33.3%

By failing to concede in the game against K’ogalo, Sofapaka -0.6%- remains second behind Karuturi – 0.4% (with the exception of Oserian & Muhoroni Youth who joined the league this season) as the teams to have conceded the least average number of goals against K’ogalo, a testimony to the number of draws played. Sofapaka has conceded 5 goals in 8 games while Karuturi has only conceded 4 in 9 games. With a game still remaining against Karuturi in Nairobi, K’ogalo will have another chance to improve on that stat before the season ends. 

K'ogalo Poised For A First League Double Over Sofapaka

Gor take on Sofapaka in a match neither can afford to lose if they are to keep up with the league’s pacesetters, Ingwe. A win for K’ogalo will see them leapfrog Thika and Ulinzi into 4^th position while a win for Sofapaka will see them narrow the gap at the top to 5 points. Now for some interesting stats on this match up.

Sofapaka has not been K’ogalo since their first match upon promotion to the top tier. They won that match 2-1 on 4^th April 2009 and since then K’ogalo has beaten them twice and drawn four times. A win for K’ogalo will see them complete their first double over Sofapaka and win their 5^th consecutive league game. It  is also interesting to note that before Rama Salim’s first leg goal, only 2 Gor players had ever scored against Sofapaka in the league, George Odhiambo “Blackberry” twice in 2009 and Julius Owino twice in 2010.

K’ogalo has played Sofapaka 7 times in the league, winning twice and losing once while four games have ended in draws. For 2 consecutive seasons (2010 and 2011), the two played to 4 consecutive draws. Only Mathare United has held K’ogalo to more consecutive draws in the league over the past 5 season, a streak of 5 which is currently running from the beginning of 2010 season. If this game ends in a draw, Sofapaka will join Karuturi on 5 games in holding K’ogalo to draws in the last 5 seasons, one less than Mathare United at 6.

If Rama Salim scores, this will be his 10^th goal for K’ogalo in the league (and 12^th in all competitions), thus becoming the first K’ogalo to go into double figures in the league for the first time in the last 5 years. A win for Gor will also be their 4^th double of the season having so far done a double over City Stars, Chemelil, and KCB. In the last 5 seasons, Gor has not done a double over more than 3 clubs, perhaps explaining why they have not won it! Here is a list of K’ogalo league doubles over the last 5 seasons.

2012: City Stars, KCB, Chemelil

2011: Western Stima, Thika United

2010: Mahakama, Rangers, Thika United

2009: Red Berets, Tusker FC

2008: Mahakama, Mathare Youth