Sunday 14th January at the Babayara sports stadium in a crucial Ghalca G8 pre-season game Kwame Boahene forced Kotoko fans to remember club hero Stephen Oduro.
Boahene’s coming at Kotoko last season was met with high expectations. The fans expected to be served the same dazzling and breathtaking football he offered the Medeama fans during his stay with them in Tarkwa but his first season in Kumasi proved to be a difficult one despite his improvement towards the end of the season. He was in and out of the first team as he struggled to be consistent with form. He was no different from an electric switch board. On and Off.
Thanks to his noteworthy display in the FA Cup finals , the Porcupine Warriors laid hands on a major silverware last season.
But on Sunday, Boahene was absolutely top class against Aduana Stars and the football he played rekindled memories of the former midfielder Oduro who during his time with the club turned the Babayara stadium into a cinema hall where soccer movies were shown .
Hafiz Adams is a very tough full back but if the former Wa All Stars captain is to watch the replay of the game , I don’t think he would be proud of himself looking at the space and freedom Boahene enjoyed on the right side of the Ogya defence.
The constant dribbles, the perfect body shakes, the fouls drawn from the rivals and the outrageous goal that completely killed Aduana’s determination to be level summed up Boahene’s display.
On the 87th minute, he received a clever pass from substitute Obed Owusu on the edge of the box. Eyes were watching. Faced by three opposing players, he danced around them with class , caressing the round object with both feet before giving a perfect curling that shook the net at the bottom corner of the far right post of goalkeeper Gordon Yeboah, completely beaten.
Perhaps two games are bigger than the whole G8 tournament. The first one is Hearts of Oak v Asante Kotoko and the other one is Kotoko v Aduana Stars fixture. The stakes generated by these fixtures are bigger than what a mere pre-season game offers and Sunday was no exception and for me the man of the day was “Osheley” Kwame Boahene.
Look at the names that adorned the Aduana team sheet. Gordon Yeboah. Stephen Anokye Badu. Faruk Adams. Hafiz Adams. Noah Martey. Elvis Opoku. Sam Adams. Congolese Ubah Ikama. Yahaya Mohammed. Bright Adjei.
The first eleven nanes written on the Kotoko team sheet were Felix Annan. Augustine Sefah. Eric Donkor. Awudu Nafiu. Emmanuel Owusu. Jackson Owusu. Jordan Opoku. Emmanuel Gyamfi. Kwame Boahene. Mohamed Vie Sylla and Frederick Boateng.
The point is the player quality of Aduana Stars is never in doubt and going into the game they were the favorites to win but if there is any man who refused to let that quality shine last Sunday then it was Kwame Boahene.
Jordan Opoku was the official man of the match but if polls was to be conducted that allowed the more than 1000 fans that watched the game to vote for the man of the match, I have no doubt Boahene was going to win it over Jordan and even Eric Donkor the scorer of the first beauty that put Kotoko 1-0 up.
The game was a pre-season but the football that Boahene and his teammates played was more than that and at this point memories of Oduro was evoked by force.
In the 59-year history of the Ghana league , never have we had three different winners in a row in which no one of Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko won a title but we are actually seeing that now. Ashantigold in 2015, Wa All Stars in 2016 and Aduana Stars in 2017.
Between 1996 and 2009 Hearts of Oak and Kotoko romped and won everything in the country lifting a combined 17 trophies – 9 league and 3 FA Cups for the Phobians and 3 league honors and 2 FA Cup titles for Kotoko. But in the last 15 competitions both in the premier league and the FA Cup, the big two have lifted a paltry 5 combined trophies. The remaining 10 have gone to the smaller clubs. For now that dominance is stopped and if things don’t change at the big two institutions this may remain so for many of the years ahead of us.
The unprecedented rise of the minority is here with us and the healthier it is for our dear game.
What are the reasons? Why have Hearts of Oak and Kotoko lost their long-standing authority in the Ghanaian championship?
There are several reasons that explain this sharp paradigm shift and here in this piece I look at some of very main reasons.
Lesser teams have built title winning mentality , the more threatened Hearts and Kotoko are
After the first decade in the 21st century, teams like Aduana Stars, Berekum Chelsea, Wa All Stars , New Edubiase United, Medeama SC , Bechem United have grown enough to show title winning attitude. To win the league or the FA Cup to be successful you need to beat the best – on regular basis – and these modern teams refused to be cheap opponents and whipping boys of Hearts and Kotoko. As for financial performances, that have not been overwhelming for majority of the clubs but the sporting success stops you from asking more questions about financial progress.
For starters , All Stars have beaten 20-time league champions Accra Hearts of Oak more times (10) than any other league side. This supremacy over the Phobians boosted the confidence level of the Wa side and it didn’t come as a surprise to me when All Stars humbled Hearts of Oak 3-1 in Accra on Week 6 in April 2016 to prepare the way for what will be an amazing 2016 football season where they became the first team either from the Northern region, Upper East or Upper West region of Ghana to be soccer champions of this country. In that season, Enos Adepah’s All Stars also recorded some notable wins against Aduana Stars whom they beat back to back, broke the home invincibility of Berekum Chelsea that had stood for almost two years, picked home win over Kotoko and the likes . These are the big games and you need to win them to become a champion and the Wa team were there , mentally and physically, in these encounters.
On another front, the most successful premier league club – Asante Kotoko have visited Aduana Stars eight times in Dormaa since 2009/10, they have never won or scored a goal there. This means any time the Porcupine Warriors visit, they go there engulfed in trepidation as they are up against a mental battle of a bad run of not scoring a single goal at a venue in eight years. Note that in the two title winning seasons of the Brong Ahafo team -2009 and 2017 – they have gone unbeaten in their home games. Very strong in front of their home fans.
This period of threat became more intense and more worrying for fans of Kotoko and Hearts of Oak especially in the season of 2010/11 when Berekum Chelsea assembled players like Mohammed Abdul Basit, Awudu Moro, Yaw Alexander, Bismark Idan, Jackson Owusu, Alfred Arthur and co who mesmerized the local game to the extent that even if you were a Hearts of Oak or Kotoko supporter you were forced to clap for the Blues of Berekum for their quality football. They defeated Kotoko back to back and snatched 4 points from the hands of Hearts of Oak and went on to clinch the title that season.
Even look, Bechem United who won the 2016 FA Cup did so by eliminating Asante Kotoko in the quarterfinals at the Babayara en route to becoming FA Cup champions whilst Medeama SC have twice beaten the Porcupine Warriors to lift the FA Cup in 2013 and 2015 and on both occasions the team they knocked out in the semifinals was masters of the FA Cup , Accra Hearts of Oak. The big two dominance is shaken more than ever.
Now , consider the last era – between 1996 and 2009 – that Hearts of Oak and Kotoko were romping and winning everything in the country lifting a combined 17 trophies – 9 league and 3 FA Cups for the Phobians and 3 league honors and 2 FA Cup titles for their counterparts, one major reason was that the other teams weren’t competitive enough and lacked what it takes to break the Hearts-Kotoko domination – at this time almost 90% of the trophies were in the hands of these two elite clubs.
Take Liberty Professionals – who have stayed in the top-flight for seventeen years in a row – for example , ask yourself what have they got to show by way of trophies in all these years? Nothing .
The very recent elite sides in the names of Aduana Stars , Wa All Stars , Berekum Chelsea, Medeama, Bechem United, New Edubaise United all have, at least , a league trophy or an FA Cup to show off. Even Nania FC who haven’t spent a minute at the top-flight have one FA Cup that sits in their locker room.
While it is true that Alhaji Sly Tetteh’s Liberty Professionals’ core objective was to produce talents like Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan, Derrick Boateng and co and sell them in the European market, the Scientific Soccer lads didn’t show this mentality of champions which WAFA – another produce and sell club of our time – demonstrated this season finishing as runner-up to Aduana Stars and looking what WAFA did this term there is a growing feeling among fans that even the academy sides can realistically win the Ghana league meaning Liberty – not really an academy side today – but are identified by some principles of academies – had no excuse to win the league . 2002 was the time Liberty – with such players as Ablade Morgan, Alfred Nii Larbi, Papa Arko, William Tiero and co – came closer to the title finishing third behind winners Hearts of Oak and runner-up Asante Kotoko and till date this remains the best part of their league history and have battled relegation in the last seasons.
Within this period of total preeminence it was only GHAPOHA that was able to win something – the 1997 FA Cup – outside these big two clubs. Today things have changed . There is a paradigm swing that points positively towards the lesser clubs making it the more good for the sake of a more balanced competition as against one in the past, that we were always sure the league trophy will rest in Kumasi or Accra. Now, in our estimations we do consider places like Wa and Dormaa as potential title destinations. WAFA would add to this list if they show some consistency.
Currently a combination of Aduana Stars, Berekum Chelsea, Medeama, Wa All Stars, Ashantigold and Bechem United, Nania FC, New Edubiase United have won a combined 10 titles out of the last 15 trophies competed against Hearts of Oak and Kotoko since 2009/10 – representing the biggest and the most remarkable vintage in the history of Ghana football in which the Hearts of Oak – Asante Kotoko dominance is heavily exposed. The group of defunct Real Republikans , Eleven Wise, Great Olympics , Dwarfs, Dumas Boys of GTP and Hasaacas combined to win 5 league titles and 6 FA Cups at expense of the two heavyweights between 1960 and 1977 – that is 11 trophies together in 17 years for these sides until Goldfields – now known as Ashantigold – dominated the championship winning it three times in a row in 1994, 1995 and 1996. The majority remainder went to the two powerhouses, Hearts and Kotoko.
Comparatively the group of Aduana Stars, Berekum Chelsea, Ashantigold, Wa All Stars Nania FC, Medeama SC, Edubiase United and Bechem United has proven to be better and more competitive against Hearts and Kotoko in that they have clinched a combined 10 trophies in a shorter period of eight years as compared to the 17 years the sextuple of Rebuplikans, Eleven Wise, Dwarfs, Olympics , Dumas and Hasaacas needed to achieve near same feat in the 60s and 70s.
Liberty, King Faisal, Okwahu United, BA United, Bofoakwa Tano, Power FC and the rest, at the start of the 21st century , were all premier league regulars but didn’t threaten and offer credible competition against Hearts and Kotoko like we’ve seen Aduana Stars, Berekum Chelsea, Wa All Stars, Ashgold do in the modern time. Now there are more teams that can win the league as compared to yesterday.
A sustained good spread of talents
We are no more at the time where chunk of the best players were concentrated at the big two clubs – the richest ones. Today a team like Bechem United – 2016 FA Cup winner – is able to field a sustainable strong team that rivals that of many top teams. Ernest Adu, Asante Agyemang, Daniel Agyin, Alfred Nelson, Sadiq Abubakar, Hafiz Wontah, Maxwell Frimpong, Amed Toure who finished third on the top scoring chat with 13 goals and co made up the 2017 Bechem United squad and you can appreciate the individual quality. Have a look at the Ebusua Dwarfs team this season who made a top-four finish behind Aduana Stars, WAFA and Hearts of Oak. Isaac Kwain, Kingsley Nteng, Joseph Esso, Nicholas Gyan – who left before season ended – and the others.
WAFA is the best talent producing premier league club and it is rightly understandable why they are – they are the only academy side playing in the country’s top-flight. Look at the talents. Majeed Ashimeru , Gideon Waja, Razak Abalora, Daniel Lomotey, Richard Danso, Prince Obeng Ampem, Musah Nuhu, Amankwa Caleb and co. Ashimeru and Abalora even left for Austria and Tanzania respectively before the season ended but the academy side still achieved a top-2 finish.
New Edubiase United stormed the league with such talents as Asiedu Attobrah , Nuhu Alhassan, Fuseini Nuhu, Abeiku Ainosoon, Ebenezer Ofori and co and they were able to maintain these guys for some time. Had they kept these talented group for longer or had they replaced them adequately, it was difficult to to have thought that Edubiase were going to be relegated in 2016.
The Berekum Chelsea side of 2012 that reached the group stages of the champions league oozed quality. Solomon Asante, Abdul Basit Mohammed the captain, Jordan Opoku, Yaw Alexander, Emmanuel Clottey, Gladson Awako and the rest became a reference side at some point in the country. Only God knows what this group would have won if they had stayed together for longer but economic crisis at the club would not allow that forcing the club to sell it’s best materials mostly to Congolese giants TP Mazembe.
The days of Hearts of Oak and Kotoko offering the biggest attraction for the best talents are not over but the gap today is not as wide as in the past and it is obvious to see that the rise of Aduana Stars in particular has threatened both Hearts of Oak and Kotoko more than ever because the Ogya club has become a strong financial competitor going head to head with with these big two in the transfer market and the Phobians are the biggest sufferers.
I once listened to Zakaria Mumuni on Metro FM – the WAFA gem of 2015 season – and he made the revelation that there were interests shown by clubs like Asante Kotoko and Ashantigold but he picked Aduana Stars due to the ambition and project they presented. Well, the lad is proven right because that project was to win a second league trophy and get back to Africa. This has been achieved this year with Zakaria starting more than 20 games and a big part of the title success.
Zakaria Mumuni (right), Godfred Saka (in middle) and Yahaya Mohammed (left) celebrate a goal in a premier league match in 2016
Liberty , Okwahu United, Dwarfs all have seen talented group of players at some points in time at the start of the current century but none of these teams were able to keep their best materials for a considerable length of a time. Think of what Liberty would have achieved if they were able to keep this group of players they had in the 2000s for long. Michael Essien, Baffour Gyan, Akakpo Patron, Ablade Morgan, Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan. At least one league trophy would not have been an unrealistic feat for this side. Whilst Liberty weren’t able to do so – Aduana did just that by extending and offering improved contracts to likes of Godfred Saka, Stephen Adams, Emmanuel Akuoko, Daniel Darkwa and the outcome is overwhelming – 2 league titles landed with several top 4 finishes.
If the other teams like Berekum Chelsea, Bechem United, Ebusua Dwarfs, WAFA are going to be on this path of consistency trodden by Aduana Stars then we can think of more different league winners ahead. The Egypt league for instance, far seen as the best in Africa at the moment – has seen the last eight league titles shared by the big two Al-Ahly (7) and Zamalek (1). The rest cannot compete. The last time a team won the league and it wasn’t either Ahly or Zamalek was in 2001/2002 (Ismaily). In Ghana we’ve had five different league winners in the last eight seasons – Aduana Stars, Berekum Chelsea, Asante Kotoko, Ashantigold, Wa All Stars.
The Aduana Stars principle of not selling their best players to title rivals
This is the title-winning concept of the Ogya side. Iv’e singled out Aduana Stars on this concept because they have demonstrated it the best over the rest of the teams.
If you look at what Aduana Stars are doing you always give them credit for maintaining good number of their key players in Dormaa for several years running.
Full-back Saka, for instance has been a serial target for big sides in the country and it is credible to believe that Kotoko and Hearts of Oak have always wanted to get a player with such wonderful talent. Even today, if Aduana Stars decide to let Saka leave, majority of the premier league clubs including Hearts and Kotoko, will be queuing up to have him because he’ll walk into any of those teams, no doubt.
Teams like BA Stars (Amos Frimpong), Edubiase United (Abeiku Ainosoon), Amidaus Professionals (Eric Ofori Antwi), Berekum Chelsea (Jackson Owusu, Ahmed Adams) have sold some of their best players to Kotoko over the years. For Aduana Stars, never. They won’t sell their best assets to improve their title rivals and is one of the ways to stay strong ahead of your co-contenders in the competition. Opare moved from Aduana Stars to Kotoko in 2017. But what happened was that Opare, 28, had his contract run out and the club decided to let him leave for free whilst freeing first team space for the 22-year old Noah Martey with whom they’ve won the league this season. Some justification served. So you can see Opare wasn’t in Aduana Stars plan any longer. If he were, they would’ve have tied him down.
Even when they did sell abroad, they made sure they replaced sufficiently. Yahaya Mohammed left after 2016 season to sign for Tanzanian side Azam FC and there was Derrick Sasraku to fill the void. Aduana Stars can consider Derrick’s 8 goals and 9 assists in this title-winning campaign and say that Yahaya was replaced well. The former Kotoko striker scored 15 goals last season for Aduana but he was a poor creator. Noah Martey didn’t make the Ogya fans miss the departed out-of-contract Seth Opare and Stephen Anokye Badu is even a better defender over Yakubu Mohammed who also followed Yahaya to join Azam FC.
Hearts of Oak were always targeting Stephen Adams to replace Philemon McCarthy but Adams would not leave Dormaa for the Capital. Why? Because he takes a good sum at the end of the month and is paid one of the biggest bonus monies in the premier league.
This is the modern era where Hearts of Oak and Kotoko can only look at teams like Berekum Chelsea, Dwarfs, Wa All Sars as their feeder clubs but certainly not Aduana Stars.
For the second time in eight years Hearts of Oak, Asante Kotoko and the rest of the premier league sides have submitted to Aduana Stars who are now Brong-Ahafo’s most successful league side.
The rise of WAFA represents another difficulty hurting the Phobians and the Fabulous side and they seem to have no clue
The growth of West Africa Football Association (WAFA) today has made the Ghanaian game more appealing because of the beautiful football that the academy boys play and the talented starlets they produce but to play the devil’s advocate this has also added to the concerns and difficulties of the Phobians and Porcupine Warriors. Gone are Bofoakwa Tano, Ba United, Kade Hotspurs, Stay Cool and the likes who were mostly cheap adversaries for Hearts and Kotoko. Present are Aduana Stars, WAFA, Wa All Stars, Berekum Chelsea who refuse to be mediocre against Ghana’s finest clubs.
Since WAFA became the club they are today in 2015 settling at the Sokagope artificial pitch as their home venue – Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko have never won there in 6 combined visits. The Phobians have lost twice and drawn once conceding 8 goals, scoring none whilst their Kumasi friends even have a worst record of three losses in three visits, 5 goals conceded and have never celebrated a goal there against the academy side that mostly fields 16-year, 17-year and 19-year olds in league games.
But when you look at the past three winners of the league, two of them won the title when they didn’t lose at WAFA . Rather than being the rule, avoiding defeat in Sogakope do lot of good to title contenders because punishing WAFA on their own pitch has never been an easy task. Check their incredible home record after 3 seasons– 45 games, 33 wins, 11 draws, 1 defeat. So it takes a really solid team to win there.
Bashiru Hayford’s Ashantigold won there 1-0 on the second week of the 2015 season as Namibian import Petrus Shitembi scored the only goal in that encounter and they went on to clinch the title – till date this is the only home loss WAFA has ever suffered on their plastic turf since 2015. In Wa All Stars’ success story of 2016, they lost 2-1 at WAFA but the difference they made was that they weren’t mediocre as they scored a goal and matched the home side in 90 minutes unlike Hearts and Kotoko that fell 3-0 and 2-0 respectively that same season. All Stars went on to be champions.
In Februray of 2017 season, Aduana Stars produced a good game and even led WAFA at half time in Sogakope and you can say that the home side were lucky to equalize through Richmond Lamptey in the second period. It was a big performance from the Ogya side who run away with a point and went on to avoid defeats at Kotoko and Hearts of Oak and in the end they called themselves champions of Ghana.
People at WAFA do not see winning the league as a top priority but beating them on their own turf is what Hearts of Oak and Kotoko haven’t been able to do.
Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, without doubt , are Ghana’s biggest soccer teams historically. They’ve won the most and important trophies but in the modern times they have been challenged in a manner they are not used to. The two are not used to finishing 3rd, 4th or 5th on the league table – and the earlier they adapt to the current trend, the better.
Until we meet here again…….Follow me on twitter @GRAUBIL
Some will be quick to say even cult hero Eric Bekoe was whistled by the Kotoko fans when he returned to play at the Babayara stadium last season this time around donning the Sekondi Hasaacas shirt. It was Kotoko vs Hasaacas on Friday 18th March 2016. Week 5 of the Ghana premier league.
Bekoe who scored 17 league goals for the Porcupine Warriors in the 2007/08 season was at the receiving end of whistles and taunts from the Kotoko fans following a tense 90-minute football battle between the two sides with Kotoko winning 1-0 and the goalscorer was the man who was jeered on Wednesday after he wasted a 20th minute penalty against Aduana Stars.
Football fans are just like Alternating Current that keeps on changing polarity many times. At one point it is positive. At other times it is negative. Football fans blow hot and cold. They are insatiable and when you consider a big institution like Kotoko it means demand for players could be extreme.
Aduana led Kotoko 1-0 after 18 minutes with a Sam Adams goal and two minutes later a penalty was awarded to the Porcupines. Boateng elected himself to take it. Some more than 700 fans waited to see a goal. Referee Agbovi whistles and Joseph Addo saves it. His hands wrapped around his head, Boateng looked disappointed for his own self not to talk about the fans. The Kotoko crowd went dead as a good chance to equalize is wasted.
After the penalty miss Boateng went completely off in the game and at this time it was clear to figure out why. The penalty miss still lingered in his mind. It weighed him down and just as the second half began coach Frimpong Manso had no option than to hook him off for Abass Mohammed in the 47th minute who will go on to deliver the much needed equalizer.
The substitution board was shown by the fourth official Sylvester Adzoko. Number 22 OUT. Number 17 IN. Boateng walks to be changed with his head lowered down. He might be still thinking about the penalty miss – I told myself.
Kwame Boateng
As he walks off the pitch some more than 700 Kotoko fans started to jeer and ridicule the striker , the same player who sent them into jubilant mood in the 17th minute of the Asante Kotoko 1 Hearts of Oak 1 game on 24th July 2016 at the same Babayara stadium.
Such is the inconsistent attitude of football fans. They love you when you deliver and hate you when you fail. It might appear unfair but it is as it is. That is the stark reality. Oh even almighty Cristiano Ronaldo sometimes receive whistles from the Madridistas.
But look to have the the crowd in a big stadium like the Babayara hooting at you is not to be taken lightly. It can kill the spirit and confidence of some players who could not manage it well. God forbid Kwame Boateng is one such players.
“I really felt very bad when the fans were whistling at him. They are our fans and we understand them but in circumstances like this one they have to support him. I really felt bad for Kwame Boateng. When he missed the kick I went to him to console him and encouraged him. Some of these things happen but what the supporters did was bad.” Eric Donkor who appeared before the media after the game said when I asked him about the whistles from the fans on Boateng.
Rather than weighing him down for the next games, Boateng should work hard to bounce back. He is a professional and these are some of the tests pro footballers face.
Eagerness. Anxiety. Passion. Will. Desperation. These were written all over match-day hero Abass Mohammed standing few steps behind the ball to execute a free-kick.
Abass Mohammed made sure Kumasi Asante Kotoko did not lose against Aduana Stars at the Babayara sports stadium on Wednesday as the Sunyani-born attacker came off the bench to salvage a point for the Porcupine Warriors with a well-taken free-kick effort.
It has been a long time a Kotoko player scored a goal from direct free-kick.
The striker scored with his very first touch in the game and he knew he needed to start scoring. His commitment since coming into the game was the best. He was the first Kotoko player to catch the ball and place it for Aduana Stars goal kick because his team searched for the winner. He took tumbles. Flew into 50-50 balls. He fought with opposing defenders. He was just a warrior.
Aduana Stars 1 Asante Kotoko 0. The scoreline read as at the 46th minute thanks to Samuel Adams tap-in goal in the 18th minute.
In the 47th minute there came Abass who took the place of Kwame Boateng was miserably whistled by the Kotoko fans for missing a 20th minute penalty. Kwame OUT. Abass IN.
Baba Mahama who joined Kotoko at the same time as Abass this season was fouled just on the edge of the Aduana box and referee William Agbovi awarded the home side a good free-kick. Michael Akuffo picked the ball, bent down to place it well and got up ready to execute it but the eagerness and anxiety of the young striker to take the freekick was too evident and strong for Akuffo to insist on executing it as the experienced Akuffo deployed as a makeshift right back in this game by interim had coach Frimpong Manson understood.
Agbovi whistles. The Babayara crowd watches on as Abass lifted the ball in a manner that appeared as if the Aduana human wall did not jump but the defending wall actually did. It was just a perfect lob that went over the defensive wall of the Ogya side and hit the underside of Joseph Addo’s crossbar before going in to shake the net as the home fans jubilated massively. 1-1 now.
Even if the decision of coach Manso to start Michael Akuffo at right back did not work well. You have to give the coach some greetings for the substitution in the 47th minute bringing on Abass the eventual match messiah.
It was an open game with both sides creating decent chances. From Kwame Boateng‘s 20th minute penalty failure to the inexplicable Nathaniel Asamoah one-on-one miss against Felix Annan in the 41st minute to the chances wasted by man of the match Zakaria Mumuni of Aduana Stars who tore makeshift right back Akuffo apart with his silky ball control and super body shakes.
There were chances created but only two goals would be scored when Bolga All Stars vs Hearts of Oak produced more goals, 6 goals in Tamale.
Godfred Saka influential in the Aduana set up picked an injury and left the game to be replaced by Nana Yaw Afriyie when 24 minutes was played – Afriyie however did not disappoint.
For Kotoko Manso’s introduction of Sarfo Gyamfi for Mahama, Ahmed Adams for Prince Acquah added little to the game of the Kumasi giants.
Asante Kotoko startling line up – GK Felix Annan, Michael Akuffo, Eric Donkor, Awal Mohammed, Awudu Nafiu, Emmanuel Gyamfi, Baba Mahama, Prince Acquah, Jackson Owusu, Obed Owusu, Kwame Boateng.
Aduana Stars starting line up – GK Joseph Addo, Godfred Saka, Daniel Darkwa, Wahab Adams, Stephen Anokye Badu, Elvis Opoku, Noah Martey, Sam Adams, Zakaria Mumuni, Derrick Sasraku, Nathaniel Asamoah
Other results of Week 13 of the 2017 Ghana Premier League
Bolga All Stars 3 Hearts of Oak 3 – Alhassan Rahim, Ibrahim Giyasu 2x / Vincent Atingah, Thomas Abbey, Alexandre Kouassi
Tema Youth 2 Great Olympics 1 – Malik Ismaila Antiri, James Akaminko / Abel Manomey
Bechem United 0 Ebusua Dwarfs 0
Elmina Sharks 0 Inter Allies 0
Ashantigold 1 Medeama 1 – Prince Owusu / Bernard Ofori Danso
Berekum Chelsea 1 Wa All Stars 0 – Alfred Okai Quaye
WAFA 2 Liberty Professionals 1 – Komlan Agbegniadan 2x / Samuel Sarfo
garibaraubil 