A Hearts-Kotoko clash: Still cherished by fans

Just before we get deeper with this script, let me just throw this line in: 'This is not a preview of the Hearts of Oak - Kumasi Asante Kotoko Glo Premier League Match Day 24 clash at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.'

Sorry. If that is what you intended to read, then I am sorry again. You probably have read previews elsewhere before the game.

Let's just play with issues surrounding the game and wait patiently for whichever referee will take charge to commence proceedings.

May Day, Boxing Day before the Match Day
Before Hearts even welcome Kotoko to the Accra turf, workers in Ghana would have had a field day on the field.

Some workers in the country have by the approval of the National Sports Authority used the Accra Sports Stadium to mark the International Workers Day. Celebration was at its best on Wednesday, May 1 as hundreds of workers in Ghana marched to mark the day.

What has this got to do with the Super Clash? Well I don't know how it went in previous times or years, but I honestly believe the NSA had to allow the field to be untouched until the game day (maybe for a week).

I am not the brains behind the schemes the authority uses to get their money but for a game of such magnitude, I somewhat feel the turf had to be left untouched for the best display of football on Sunday.

Who am I to say that's bad? It even gets more twisted when we consider the international boxing bout between Ghana's Braimah Bukom Banku Kamoko and Georgia's George Tevdorashvili on Friday, May 3.

Some stakeholders have asked that the bout be moved elsewhere as the filth that will be generated and

the state of the turf will not be a friendly one for the crunch game.

For the very spiritually motivated fans, and the operational ones for that matter, foreign elements might plant items on the field as the boxing bout is allowed to take place there. It's funny to an extent with such spiritual matters but when it comes to games between Kotoko and Hearts, fun is something relegated to the background.

The Accra Sports Stadium turf is getting punished before the game between Kotoko and Hearts. We only hope it takes no fun away from the game.

Manchester United-Chelsea then Hearts of Oak-Asante Kotoko

At the exact time Hearts play Kotoko in Accra, Manchester United will take on Chelsea of London in the city of Manchester.

The problem we have had in recent years in the local league has been the task of getting people into the stands rather than they staying put to their TV screens and DSTV centres to watch foreign leagues.

Over the past seasons, commitment to the local league has been dwindling with football fanatics giving more attention to foreign leagues.

Manchester United against Chelsea will surely be a huge test of how far we have come with patronage of local football.

The game between the English sides will in no way affect the eventual winner of the EPL as Manchester United wrapped the league title a fortnight ago.

Chelsea however want a win crucially to make their place in Europe a certainty. Asante Kotoko versus

Hearts of Oak is however seems a more crucial one too as it will go a long way to determine where the league title will eventually settle.

Kotoko, though in 3rd place are just a point behind leaders, Medeama SC and will want a win, even away from home, to make their title defense a less difficult task.

Manchester will of certainty boil but down here, somewhere in Accra, the capital of Ghana, there will be similar fireworks. So then, let's allow the English to slug it out in the EPL as we see to our own in the GHPL.

Lucky or Tactics?
I have listened to many pundits say 'Hearts-Kotoko games don't follow form guide.'

I personally find that pretty difficult to take in wholly. I will always want my team to be in a fine form before going to face their perennial rivals.

I will want my top striker to be banging in the goals before such crunch games. I will also want my team to have played without conceding goals before going into such games.

I will want my team to be in fine form! In fact, the finest of forms before such games. But the painter has painted a picture of confusion. That the team that goes into the game more determined and with a kiss from luck will bang in the goals.

When Hearts beat Kotoko 4-0 in 2000, was it due to luck? When Kotoko beat Hearts 3-1 in 2005, was it due to luck? Well I think that was a case of the better side in the lead up to the game winning.

Victory might go to either side for certain, but the issue about the game not following form guide is bogus in my opinion. If your team is in fine form for such derbies, you bless your stars.

Kotoko and Hearts both have been playing sparingly well in recent weeks. It is difficult to judge which side is in fine shape now. Kotoko are however placed 3rd on the league log with Hearts of Oak in an uncomfortable 9th position.

Kotoko have already scored 29 goals in the league with Hearts scoring 32 after 23 days of league action. The Phobia defence however is scarily leaky as Hearts have allowed some 30 goals into the back of their net already. Kotoko have a more respectable defence record with 18 goals conceded.

That is just by the way. There is no intention to preview the forms of the two sides for the game at hand so I might have to leave it there.

Let the tactics triumph on the day. The fans deserve some beautiful football treatment on Sunday. The game shouldn't just be about the team that got luck hugging them by the feet but the one that got the right tactics in the right place.

Another 'May Day' and the FA Cup final
Scroll your eyes up the script again and you will realize there hasn't been the mention of a single player in this write up. Well I said this wasn't a preview and so there was no way I was going to mention the name of any top player.

We surely will get our eyes fixed on the footballers who will grace the occasion but the fans should be cautioned to watch out for themselves too.

Just some 12 years ago, we had packed ourselves in the Accra Sports Stadium only to be swept apart by tear gas from Police Personnel. Who knows not the details of May 9th Disaster? Send me a tweet @AngeloBenjy for the details then.

Fans should be each other's keeper as we hope for an entertaining showpiece. We will surely disagree at some point but there is no point in throwing punches and plastic chairs.

Both Kotoko and Hearts are in the FA Cup tourney and so there is a potential final game between the two sides. Who hates such games in Ghana? Nobody! So if the gods will want them to meet again, so be it.

Kotoko and Hearts will have to clear Amidaus and Medeama respectively then we get that game on.

So sorry for the long script. Wanted this to be shorter. But it is Accra Hearts of Oak versus Asante Kotoko, who doesn't get excited about this?

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