Zico rallies Gor for mighty Esperance task

Gor Mahia FC assistant coach Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno has implored the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) giants to go all out in solving the Esperance Tunis puzzle currently on their hands.

The KPL champions need an outright win or a scoring draw in order to advance to the CAF Champions League group stage having settled for a 0-0 draw in the first leg played at the Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos.

With memories of their humiliating 8-2 aggregate loss to the same opposition in 2014, Gor have largely been written off but Zico has reminded his charges that all the inspiration they need lies right under their noses.

Zico was part of the 1992 team that upset the odds to knock Cameroon’s Canon Yaoundé out of the African Cup of Champions Clubs second round and says he vividly remembers how no one had given them a chance.

Oddly, the circumstances around that team were the exact same ones facing the current Gor set up.

Canon had previously handed Gor a 6-0 aggregate defeat (in 1979). The first leg had ended 0-0 before the Cameroonians ran riot on home turf to send Gor crashing out.

That script was about to be repeated as the first leg again finished 0-0 and Gor had to travel to Cameroon looking to pull of the impossible.

At the time, Canon boasted some of the biggest stars on the continent including Biyik Omam and Kem Ndipa who had helped the Cameroon national team to reaching the World Cup quarter-finals two years earlier.

But the young Gor side held their ground to salvage a one all draw to qualify on away goal rule with Zico on the scoresheet.

“It’s not easy fixture but it can be done. We have done it before and I believe right now we have a very strong team with the character needed to win such games,” Zico told Citizen Digital.

Earlier, the club filed a complaint over Esperance’s unsanctioned decision to postpone the return leg fixture from Saturday to Sunday which they insisted had caused them logistical inconveniences.

CAF has the match scheduled for Saturday on their portal and as a result, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has written to continental governing body seeking clarification.

Gor are in impeccable form at home, winning all but one of their opening six matches with their barren draw with Tusker FC the only blight in their domestic streak. They remain the only club yet to lose a KPL match this season.

The team is set to depart on Thursday night ahead of the showdown but have no natural right back to call upon with Wellington Ochieng’ and Karim Nzigiyimana still ruled out injured.