League thrills: Liberty 2-2 Kotoko

All The Fixtures/Results
Finally we can get going in the Premier League and what a game to start with. At the Accra Stadium on Saturday, Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Liberty Professionals will kick off the thirty-week long league season designed to determine the best club in Ghana on the field of play.

Kotoko and Liberty have done enough in the days leading up to this game to prove their battle readiness and before an expectant full house at the Accra Stadium, they are likely to sell a game worthy of a season’s opener. For both sides, getting off to a good start will be the key to a successful season.

Kotoko, the once mighty all-conquering side that went through a self-declared rebuilding exercise appears to be at the roofing stage. In that sense, failure to impress again, which in this sense will be clinching the league title will be difficult to explain away. Here is why. After chopping off the team and adding in the last two season, Kotoko appear to have added some consistency to their team building effort.

Significantly, the team likely to take to the field on Saturday will have one change from the regular side that played second fiddle to Hearts of Oak and that is Nana Arhin Duah. It’s easy to put the labels on in football but the ex-Goldfields man has done enough to get the Porcupine faithful waxing confidently about him and what he can bring to bear on the fabulous team.

They will hope that he will start the local campaign the way he has started the African Cup campaign for Kotoko, with two goals in two games so far. More important for Kotoko’s future will be how Stephen Oduro works the midfild and on the form of hardworking attacking midfielder Michael Osei.

Liberty will themselves fancy their chances of starting their season well too. They were brilliant in pre-season well too. They were brilliant in pre-season and will relish the chance to claim their first big scalp of the season. Much of that will be dependent on their famed teamwork but they have individual talents enough to swing a game in their favour.

John Paintsil is capable of dribbling an entire pack and when he gets it right in the day, he is more tan difficult to handle. Then they have Papa Arko who so much terrorised Hearts in their GHALCA Top Four Challenge game at the same venue. Hearts themselves will be back at the Accra Stadium this Sunday, one week after they were bundled out of the CAF Champions League in the first round for the second straight year.

This time, the Rainbows will be up against Bofoakwa eager to put the disappointment of that failure behind them. New man Herbert Addo has been reportedly given the mandate to ring the changes and rid the Phobians of “indisciplined and old players.” Likely to stay however is the talented Charles Taylor and Don Bortey whose form will be vital for success for the Phobians.

They will however, need to get their acts back quickly and win back the confidence of their faithful for whom defeat on the first day of the league will be difficult to stomach. It looks like they will not go through that pain on Sunday at the Accra Stadium.

Accra Great Olympics who endured a difficult start to last year’s campaign will be hoping for a smoother take off this time round. That is mainly due to the fact that they travel to Sunyani on day one where the opponents will be B.A. United. The Apostles of Soccer are still basking in the seasonal gala triumph and if they are to be believed, that is the sign of good things to come.

There is another potential thrilling clash at the Len Clay Stadium where Goldfields will have to deal with last season’s surprise package Dawu Youngsters to get off to a good start. Granted Goldfields don’t suffer the breakdown that wrecked their African Championship ambitions two weeks ago, they should win.

Hasaacas, without their potent striker Issa Mohammed, now in Sweden, should still have enough firepower to overcome Berekum Arsenals at Sekondi. New entrants Prestea Mines Stars had off to Bolgatanga, now home base of RTU due to the renovation works at Tamale Kaladan to face them. It is a difficult opening game for the newcomers and looks set to be a losing start for them.

The other match involving the new entrants will be a Koforidua derby where Suhum Maxbees and Koforidua Power F/C who both use the Eastern regional capital for their games, clash.