Sadick Adams — A day of glory
All of a sudden, last week became full of talks about sports and everywhere one turned, the focus was on the wonderful display — by Bastie Samir against unbeaten
Braimah Kamoko, popularly known as Bukom Banku, in the non-title light heavyweight division bout and the possibility of a rematch.
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Which boxing pundits had the guts to predict that wonderful upset, and of course, was it not the result of complacency on the part of Kamoko who talked tough and sang songs to tease his opponent? Will the story be different when the two meet again, even today?
And just at that time, the Under-17 football team, the Black Starlets had worked their way to the quarter-finals of the World Cup tournament and had crashed out at the hands of their Malian counterparts who worked so hard but finally handed the baton to the dream finalists, England and Spain.
It was indeed a dramatic end of a tournament where Spain took an early two-goal lead only to be overtaken by the English who ended up winning the World Cup 5 - 2 and some of the great prizes that went with it.
For goodness sake, after the week's uncompromising discussions came another crunch football contest, this time between the nation's two archrivals, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko in the grand finale of the 2016/2017 MTN FA Cup slated for the Tamale Sports Stadium.
Early on, the annual national Premier League had ended with both clubs unhappy with their fate in that competition which saw Hearts picking the third position and placing fifth on the league log with everybody wondering what sort of performance both would put up to earn the bragging rights on winning the MTN FA Cup.
To tell you the truth, both sides had all that was needed to make the game great with the resurrection agenda to the dying image at the local level.
It was predominantly a sporting talk-about in preparation for the local “el-classico”.
Both Hearts and Kotoko's preparations were shrouded in obscurity. Speculations were rife on almost all radio stations and the talks and tabloids were awash over who would be the FA Cup Champions, a position the two combatants could boast of occupying for several times in the annals of the competition.
The 2016/2017 Premiership had just ended, and it was obvious the players, the coaches and the managers that would be on display had had a serious scrutiny as the day drew closer.
Of course, listening to the various versions of the fans, it looked as if Hearts of Oak and Kotoko were equally matched, however, there were reasons to highlight Hearts as possible winners, looking at the recent exploits of their team members during the recently-ended WAFU international tournament held in this land and won by the Black Stars B.
The pendulum pointed at the Phobians and they made the world feel they had the capability to ride over their opponents but for obvious reasons, Kotoko had a hidden agenda and a strategy which eluded everybody.
Even the preparedness of their individual playmakers were kept in secrecy, and in the end, it turned out to be their advantage.
One player who was not made a centre of the agenda was Sadick Adams, who rather dodged every searching eye with stories of his unpreparedness for poor physical fitness, probably following the recent road accident suffered by the Porcupine Warriors on the Accra- Kumasi road.
That story was the undoing of the followers of Hearts and their spiritual tutelage who might have thrown him out of focus in their preparations.
But then, finally, when the Kotoko team lined up, lo and behold, there stood Sadick Adams wearing jersey number 99 and playing in the position of the leading striker of the Kumasi lads.
And within a matter of 82 seconds, after the referee had blasted his first whistle, Sadick made his presence felt with a fantastic opening goal.
How he turned and twisted to deceive his marker made him the player of the day at once.
Indeed, Hearts were not perturbed by that early goal, and their numerous fans who travelled from far and near did not seem to be in any state of panic as they had too much trust in their men on the field who had in earlier times turned defeats into victory.
But just as the game was going in favour of Hearts, Kotoko suddenly turned the tide to shake the very foundation of their opponents, and with Saddick working his way like a charged soldier to slot in the second goal, he was fouled by his marker, and there referee Latif Adaari did not hesitate to whistle for a penalty.
And Sadick happily elected himself for the task which he discharged for the second goal.
Believe me, that goal added greater confidence in the marauding Kotoko set-up who attacked from all angles, and getting to the end of the first half Hearts trusted defender Vincent Atinga did the impossible by sending a weak pass to his goalkeeper and the ball fell on the path of Sadick and that was it.
He seized the opportunity to punish Hearts with his great hat-trick which has not been common in the Kotoko-Hearts deciders for decades.
In his ecstasy, Saddick lifted the front of his shirt to show an inside inscription which read "Jah Knows", a sign that he knew what he was going to do that day in Tamale.
The first half ended with Kotoko in a comfortable 3 - 0 lead, and the prayer of the teeming masses of Hearts supporters on the field and those at home watching the television and those listening to the radio was that the Almighty would intervene to avoid a fourth goal which would erase the record set by Hearts against Kotoko at the Accra Sports Stadium in the year 2000.
May I say that God listened to their supplication and offered the Phobians a consolation goal that came from the head of Thomas Abbey, their captain.
It was Kotoko's historic cup final, something which reminded me of the 1958 Aspro Cup final which Kotoko won 4 — 2 after Hearts had taken a lead with two quick goals. Indeed, they deserved all the goodies that went with it.
And what a glorious day it was for Sadick Adams! God bless!
