Sports News of Monday, 11 April 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-04-11Super Clash: Four talking points after Kotoko beat Hearts
Asante Kotoko players celebrating goal against Hearts of Oak
The final super clash of the 2021/2022 Ghana Premier League season came-off at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium with Asante Kotoko recording a slim win over Hearts of Oak.
Dominant Kotoko grabbed a deserving win through Franck Etouga Mbella's first half penalty goal.
Just like the previous meetings between the two, there a lot of
Read full articletalking points the morning after the match that was played on Sunday, April 10, 2022.
Here are the four major talking points
Penalty incident
The major discussion has to do with the penalty call by the center referee, Kennedy Paddy.
Fabio Gama made a dashing run into the hearts box, which and was chased down by Nurudeen Abdul Aziz.
Gama then decided to turn away from Nurudeen which the Hearts of Oak man blocked the Brazilian with his arm.
Many argued that the contact was not that strong for Gama to fall while other believe whether it was enough or not there was a contact and therefore the referee had it right.
Attendance
For the first time in recent years, the Super Clash had arguably its lowest attendance. According to Joy news journalist, Owuraku Ampofo, a little over 15, 000 fans turned up at the 42,000 capacity Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
Regarding the poor attendance, many have blamed it on the use of the electronic-ticket. The argument is that buying ticket online was challenging and that is how come the attendance was low.
The E-ticketing was first used during Ghana’s FIFA World Cup qualifier against Nigeria on Kumasi, which was a success.
Performance of both sides
The last three Super Clash have been intriguing and exciting to fans who either watched them behind the screen or at the stadium. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Sunday’s game.
Both set of players looked lost on the field, the coaches’ ideas were blurry and it was difficult to tell their game plan.
Fabio Gama
The Brazilian earned all the applauds after the game. Gama earned the praises of Kotoko fans and the football pundit for his impressive show in the match.
His intelligent movement and decisive short passes were in full flow.
Referee performance
Referee Kennedy Paddy handled his first ever Super Clash. He has become topical after the fixture at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
His penalty call and certain decisions has had many buying into the narrative that most Ghanaian referees are not up to standard.
