Karim Zito took a quick scan across the room as he entered.
To his right, sat an elevated desk, behind which, he, and many other coaches before him, would sit to face the press after an eventful game of football.
Right ahead, stood a thousand tripods, holding cameras belonging to the country’s most powerful media entities. Thanks to the occasion, some of those cameras, belonged to media houses from outside Ghana – mostly from Morocco, where their guests reside.
It is one of the few days in the year that another country cared enough about what happened in the squared spaces of this yet football-obsessed, tiny, yet unapologetically proud, country of 35 million people.
Happier times: Zito had more joy unveiling the club’s new merchandise than he did from watching his team on Sunday.
Some of the 35 million people are journalists. A few of them, numbering between 25 and 35, are packed in the small conference room of the Accra Sports Stadium, where Zito stands.
Zito’s gave returns to the floor, desperately looking for the words to capture his thoughts properly, to sum up what he had just witnessed.
And he had seen quite a lot in the past two hours. Kotoko had just lost to Wydad Athletic by a goal to nil in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup play-off round. Thanks to Mohammed Camara’s moment of madness, he was also sent off.
Somewhere in that introspection, Zito ought to admit a few mistakes.
Pointless gamble.
Albert Amoah struggled with mobility due to a niggling injury
The decisions to start Albert Amoah was a strange one. Zito had rested him in the league match against Nations F.C. Last week, ostensibly to avoid aggravating the injury he was carrying.
In the weeks preceding the game, Amoah only trained on Friday. Before that, the only time he engaged any physical exertion was on Thursday when he trained alone.
The week before that, he had similarly missed a couple of training sessions due to the same injury concerns.
So Amoah was not in the right physical condition to start Sunday’s match against Wydad Athletic.
It is tempting to try to justify Zito’s decision to start a striker who could not move in knockout game. However, that decision is largely why Kotoko did not have any central threat on Sunday.
Perhaps if Donzo Moriging had started, they would have been a central figure to play through.
To make matters worse, Amoah appeared to have aggravated the injury and may not be available for the reverse fixture on Sunday. Without him, Kotoko will be without their two first choice strikers, the other being Kwame Opoku.
Why did Camara start?
Mohammed Camara was sent off after handling the ball outside his goal area.
Mohammed Camara’s indiscretions are well documented. Of all the goalkeepers in the Ghana Premier League last season, Camara made the most errors directly leading to goals – five.
So when Aziz Dari joined from Bechem United in July, Kotoko appeared to have solved that problem.
Yet, after two credible performances against Heart of Lions and Bibiani Gold Stars, the goalkeeper was inexplicably dropped to the bench against Nations F.C. and on Sunday, against Wydad Athletic.
When he rushed out of his goalline and ultimately handled the ball outside of his box, no one inside the stadium was surprised.
When he petulant and stupidly pushed the referee, it did not surprise anyone either.
It was typical of Camara.
For starting such an erratic, unreliable goalkeeper in a high stakes game, Zito deserves no sympathy.
Kotoko’s lack of quality exposed
On Sunday, the goal scoring and creative responsibility fell to Peter Amidu Acquah – who has a combined tally of two goals from the past two seasons, and Inusah Adams, who was not in the topflight at all last term.
Wahab Fuseini, who played off Amoah yesterday, only resumed active football in September, after being inactive for six months following Nsoatreman’s withdrawal from the league in March.
As far as other options are concerned, the club is yet to communicate when Baba Yahaya and Saaka Dauda will recover from their respective injuries.
That leaves Zito with a squad remarkably skint on quality.
What we all know
More than anything else, Sunday was another crude reminder of the chasm that currently exists between Ghana’s best teams and the strongest teams out there.
Joseph Bakasu – right, scored the winner as Wydad defeated Kotoko in Accra.
Wydad are not exactly the same force of nature they used to be.
Since they last won the league, Wydad has been anything but competitive.
They finished in sixth place with 44 points at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, 28 points behind league champions Raja Casablanca.
Last season, they could only manage a modest third place with 54 points, 16 points behind R.S. Berkane, who won the league.
Their best finish since winning the league in 2022 was a second-place finish in 2023 when A.S FAR pipped them to the title by just a point.
That record pales in comparison with the last Wydad team that came here.
Hicham Aït Menna, a millionaire mostly known for his interests in construction and a Member of Parliament of Mohameddia, is the club’s new president.
Before him, Said Naciri, who has been incarcerated on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, etc., ran the club for a decade.
In his ten-year reign, Naiciri delivered two of Wydad A.C.’s three Champions League titles – 2017 and 2022, and five league titles. The last two of five league titles and the 2022 Champions League title were all won by the team that eliminated Hearts of three years ago.
That team is what many assume Wydad still is.
But they are not.
Wydad’s participation in the Confederation Cup is in itself proof of their falling standards.
Yet, in their fallow period, they dispatched Ghana’s representative without breaking sweat.
There is still a world where Kotoko goes to Morocco and wins by a two goals margin.
It is possible.
Except, that kind of possibility shares a striking resemblance with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s “it is possible.”
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