Bechem — Undisputably great and united
Now I know why members of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) were strongly disputing the Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lante Vanderpuye's assertion that the Ghana Premier League was not as attractive as it was supposed to be, but that there was room for improvement.
Advertisement
Interestingly, the new clubs are rather doing wonders and the prospect in the future will be great, only if these clubs would be motivated. For anybody who spent money and time to be at the Cape Coast Stadium last Sunday to watch the MTN/FA Cup grand finale, there was all the assurance that the game was showing tremendous improvement and quality.
I have now realised why Bechem United edged out a giant like Kumasi Asante Kotoko even at their favourite Baba Yara Stadium at the quarter-finals to qualify for the semi-finals stage on their way to the grand finale against Okwawu United.
It is becoming clear that such knockout competitionsdo not scare lower division clubs and that is the way Wa Rockets, for instance, worked their way to the semi-finals to meet Bechem United and it is the same manner things worked well for Okwawu United. In through to discipline a top club like Liberty Professionals in the semis to reach their goal.
Indeed, this reminds me of the days Sunderland, then playing in the lower division of the English League, rose from nowhere to beat all leading clubs and moved to the grand-finale to face Manchester United and went ahead to defeat them at Wembley.
It happened in the 80s and went to establish the fact that in the FA Cup competition, anything is possible.
New-born Okwawu United fans who travelled from Accra, Nkawkaw and Asamankese and other parts of the country in a fleet of buses to Cape Coast last Sunday, were confident that what others thought was impossible would be possible that day, and that they would lift the Cup just as they did in 1986, in the days of their current coach, Ibrahim Merigah, then their midfielder.
But that did not bother their opponents, whose coach Manuel Zacharias, gave his team the necessary last-touch preparation and it was obvious it would take something more than determination for Okwawu to lift the Cup, and true to prediction, the club that recently made light work of cup-hungry Hearts of Oak with a 3 - 1 victory at the Nana Gyeabour's Park at Bechem, simply rose to the occasion to have their name written in letters of gold in the history of FA Cup winners.
Other Trending Stories
In reality, the whole exercise bordered on how to raise a strong team that would face Africa in next year’s Confederation Cup, and at that point, with Bechem United doing the giant-killing against Kotoko and Hearts, it was obvious they were the choice of the bookmakers.
Obviously, their present set-up look very solid in all aspects, and the expectation is that they would maintain their form.
It must be noted that since 2004 when Accra Hearts of Oak captured the maiden Confederation Cup in Kumasi by beating Kotoko on penalties, it looked as if the dream of any of our top clubs conquering Africa has become a mirage. Kotoko, Hearts of Oak, Ashgold, Chelsea, Medeama and others have failed miserably to realise their goals while other African clubs are making it in flying colours, with Algeria's Bejaia setting a good example.
Do we really see Bechem United doing what Medeama could not do at their invitation to the next Confederation Cup challenge, looking at the way they have built a solid team capable of challenging other continental giants?
As all of us have a stake in the success story of our clubs on the continental front, it must be the prayer of all and sundry to support the newly-crowned FA champions.
Hundreds of Bejaias are all over the place, and for that the new champions must start getting their preparation going for strong players that can steal the show. Meanwhile, we have just about three matches to go on the Premier League calendar and interestingly none of the four top clubs can easily claim the right to celebrate as of now.
They have all declared "Operation nine points" with Wa All Stars almost proclaiming themselves as winners with some little display of resilience. But Aduana Stars in the second position still pose a strong threat to the title, while Asante Kotoko and Hearts still pose a threat to the leadership.
But down there at the bottom of the league table are relegation threatened Techiman City, Hasaacas and New Edubiase, who are in a very serious condition that calls for some radical action. None of them is ready to give up, and that makes the "home stretch" one of the greatest challenges ever seen.
But to a greater extent, this must be the times to watch the behind-the-scenes activities of our beloved referees. It could be the hour of temptation and perhaps this calls for greater vigilance on the part of the Referees Association itself, with the FA as a supervisory body.
As the clubs garner fresh impetus in the last-minute attack for honours, it is expected that greater care must be taken to avoid all the temptations.
To Bechem United, I say kudos for the hard work which produced two majestic goals and, to Okwawu, I say well done for the good challenge that earned them the number two position in the MTN/FA Cup.
