Gor Mahia vs Muhoroni Youth Preview

This Saturday Gor Mahia hosts Muhoroni Youth in a league match but is this fixture the most one sided in the league for Gor Mahia over the past few years? Since Gor Mahia shockingly lost 0-1 to Muhoroni Youth in their first encounter in 2012, Gor Mahia has won all the subsequent league encounters, scoring 24 goals while conceding only 2 and harvesting 30 points out of a possible 33. However a closer look at head to head results versus other teams that have been in the league throughout this period will reveal that Chemelil FC have fared slightly worse against the Green Army.

Chemelil has never beaten Gor Mahia over this period, managing only one draw and conceding 20 goals. Sony FC and Thika United are the only other teams to have failed to beat K'Ogalo in the league during this period. The toughest opponents for Gor Mahia during this period have been Ulinzi who have only handed K'Ogalo 14 points and won 3 times, joint highest with Tusker FC.

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
Chemelil Sugar FC	11	10	1	0	20	3	31
Muhoroni Youth	11	10	0	1	24	2	30
Sony FC	11	8	3	0	11	2	27
Mathare United	11	7	3	1	17	8	24
Western Stima	11	7	3	1	15	6	24
Thika United	11	6	5	0	15	6	23
Sofapaka FC	11	6	3	2	11	6	21
AFC Leopards	11	5	4	2	15	10	19
Tusker FC	11	4	4	3	5	7	16
Ulinzi Stars	11	3	5	3	8	6	14

Back to Gor Mahia vs Muhoroni Youth; Dan Sserunkuma has scored 5 goals in this fixture, more than any other player with Jacques Tuyisenge scoring 3 times. Only Geoffrey Simiyu and Enos Ochieng have scored a goal for Muhoroni in this fixture.

Sserunkuma: Has scored more goals in this fixture more than any other player

Muhoroni Youth can however take consolation that the most famous victory in their history was against Gor Mahia in the 2016 Top 8 Final to clinch their only major trophy.

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

Sir'kal Set To Switch Off Power Today - Here's The Record Against Stima

Today we take on Western Stima in the FKF Cup. I cannot remember ever playing Stima in a cup game so my stats against them are purely based on the league and specifically the past 5 seasons. There has been a misconception by some that Stima has generally caused K’ogalo problems but my stats suggest that we have actually reaped more points from Stima over the last 5 seasons than from any other team except City Stars. We have accumulated 20 points from both teams, at an average of 2.0 points per game.  They are followed by Chemelil and Thika who have given us 18 points each. Below is a table of the 5 most generous teams towards K’ogalo in the league.

Team	No of Games	No of Points	Average
Western Stima	10	20	2.0
City Stars	10	20	2.0
Thika United	9	18	2.0
Chemelil	10	18	2.0
KCB	10	17	1.7

In the process, Sirkal has shipped in 8 goals against Stima while conceding 5. For those interested, here are the K’ogalo boys who have scored those 8 goals.

23.06.2012 – Joseph “Pablo” Njuguna, Dan Sserunkuma

20.08.2011 – Kevin Omondi

23.03.2011 – Edwin Lavatsa

31.07.2010 – Andrew Ongwae

26.07.2009 – Baldin Ngwa

07.03.2009 – Peter “Pinchez” Opiyo

27.08.2008 – Zablon “Pro” Otieno

Who will add their name to this list today?

                                               Lavatsa against Stima in a past match

Edwin Lavatsa, if he scores today, will score his 7^th goals in cup competitions in 2 years, making him K’ogalo’s most prolific cup scorer in the last 5 seasons. Lavatsa scored 4 goals last season en route to winning the FKF cup last season and has so far netted once in the competition this season and also scored one in the Top 8 cup. He is definitely K’ogalo’s main cup man. Another cup man is Moses Odhiambo “Dube” who scored 3 last season and has already bagged one this season. I however think he is likely to sit this one out as Loga looks set to give some of his main players a rest.

My prediction today? 2-0 to Sirkal.