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The Ghana Premier League is picking up pace and drama with two coaches already fired.
Surprisingly, Karela is on top of the table, while Hearts of Oak is languishing at the bottom.
With a game in hand, hearts will probably have a little time to turn their luck, but there is that and more to look forward to today.
Coaches meeting
The league drama is accompanied by a bit of nostalgia as two familiar faces, Bashir Hayford and Kosta Papic, return to an all-too-known stage of Ghana soccer.
Bashir Hayford was announced by Legon Cities as their new head coach last week, but makes his debut for the Royals this week when they travel to Dawu to play Dreams FC. That game could prove to be a tough comeback for Bashir, with Dreams boasting a good home record.
Kosta Papic returns to Accra Hearts of Oak, where he laid the groundwork for the club’s 20th title in the 2008/09 season. He is back at a time when the club is looking for a change of fortune and is desperate to redeem itself after a somewhat poor streak of performances in recent seasons.
More of Gyan?
The forward finally made his debut for Legon Cities against Medeama and although he played only 20 minutes, it was an encouraging display for the 35-year-old.
Legon Cities assistant coach Wahid Mohammed, who took over that game, indicated that the plan is to gradually ease the striker into the league’s demands, so Gyan is expected to last more than 20 minutes in this game. week against Dreams.
Karela shine
It’s still early in the season, but Karela is in inspired form. They have yet to lose a game and are currently sitting at the top of the table with seven points.
The Aiyinase-based team have scored five goals in three matches and it looks like they will continue the trend established in the last 6 years of a club other than Hearts or Kotoko winning the Ghana high.
This week, they face Hearts of Oak, a team struggling to stay fit after two games. Hearts currently last, with one point in three games, will possibly coincide with their worst start to the season in 1986, where they only had three points in three games, should they lose this meeting.
However, the Hearts seem to have the advantage that history smiles on them, as they have won the only meeting between the two sides.
Nonetheless, Karela’s inspired form, a catalyst for her string of impressive performances, could shake that story dust off.
Continual struggles along the way
Ghana’s Premier League this season has yet to witness any victories.
Of the 24 away games played this season, 15 have ended in a draw, 37.5% lose, while 37.5% of the games have seen visiting teams fail to score.
With Liberty traveling to Berekum, Legon Cities going to Dreams, WAFA traveling to Techiman to take on Eleven Wonders and Great Olympics hosting Ebusua Dwarfs, the slump of bad results on the road is expected to extend into next week.
Doors open in minutes before and after halftime
In the round of matches played last week, of the nine goals recorded, four came in the last minutes of the first half, while three came in the 55-65 minutes of the second half.
The winning goal in the Karela vs Dreams matchup was scored in the 65th minute, while the Allies scored their winning goal against Hearts of Oak in the 61st minute.
WAFA v Elmina Sharks, which ended in a 1-1 draw, saw their goals split between the two dead zones last week, with Elmina Sharks scoring in the 41st minute before WAFA found the equalizer in the 55th minute.
There were only two games last week in which goals were scored outside of these deadlines; Enanos vs Berekum Chelsea and Karela vs Dreams.
The dwarfs scored the only goal of their game with Berekum Chelsea in the 21st minute and even in the Karela v Dreams game, Esso’s goal came in the 37th minute, quite close to the dead zone of the 40 minute mark of the first half of Joy Sports, right?
So yeah, on matchday 4, expect your goal notifications to go off around the Joy Sports dead zones.
