Sports
Accra Great Olympics@70 …What’s there to celebrate?
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• Club’s Board Chairman, Mr Amarkai Amarteifio and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Oloboi
Commodore join the players to celebrate the GHALCA Top 6 trophy, the last the club won
Wonder Club, Accra Great Olympics will mark its 70 years of existence tomorrow, hurray!
As a club founded on April 21, 1954, it assumed a position as the third force of Ghana football behind Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko.
Under normal circumstances, tomorrow must be one of the happiest days in the lives of the club’s faithful because a Platinum anniversary is no mean an achievement.
Growing up, many clubs have passed through the football scene, all at a point fighting to be considered as one of the established forces.
But one may ask, where are they now?
Clubs like Dawu Youngsters, Prestea Mine Stars, Ho Voradep, Soccer Missionaries, Maxbees, Kumasi Cornerstones, Iron Breakers, and many others in the past thrilled and entertained fans but have disappeared.
But Olympics have managed to survive similar storms that plunged these clubs into obscurity.
The height of the difficult patch they threaded on was three relegations all of which they managed to return, the reason the AGOSU faithful would celebrate the milestone as a Premier League club.
On such a gargantuan occasion, the club should be celebrating its achievements, no matter how small they are – two Premier League titles in 1970 and 1974; and three-time FA Cup champions – in 1975, 1983, and 1995.
That aside, Olympics also won the Super Cup and the Guinness Gala competitions and as a few would cynically add, the Temogen Cup after beating Hearts of Oak.
In terms of players, Great Olympics have produced some of the finest players across the various generations.
They had the late Cecil Jones Attuquayefio, Peter Lamptey, the late Emmanuel Awuley Quaye, Billy Lomotey, Shittu Mudah, George Alhassan, Abdul Aziz, Amoah Tawiah, and a host of others.
Without a doubt, history makes a place for the Wonder Club as a formidable side in Ghana.
But already, some critics of the club and a few daring loyalists are beginning to question what is there to celebrate.
For such people, the claim of the ‘Dade’ club to be the third force of Ghana football must come with corresponding achievement or statistics to suggest so.
The Wonder Club may lack a continental laurel in their cabinet but put in sterling performances on the few occasions they qualified for continental club competitions, notably against clubs like Abhaluya Club of Kenya, MMM of Madagascar, Coffee Club of Uganda, Enugu Rangers, Invincible XI from Liberia, Motemba Pembe of then Zaire (now DR Congo) and others.
Interestingly, Olympics@70 also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the club’s last league win. One may ask again, is that worth celebrating?
Within that period, Hearts and Kotoko have dominated the scene and built on their successes and left few spaces for clubs like Ashantigold SC, Medeama, Aduana SC, Berekum Chelsea to dominate the league.
It may be a time for a few to party but for dye-in-the wool followers, the anniversary period should call for sober reflection on the way forward to make Oly great again.
Until then, happy 70th Platinum birthday to the Wonder Club of the world.
By Andrew Nortey
If there is a club Kumasi Asante Kotoko would want to avoid, definitely it would be Kpando Heart of Lions, and not Hearts of Oak.
Kotoko and Hearts have sold to soccer fans some of the electrifying football atmosphere to underline their age-long rivalry.
Despite their stature in Ghana football, however, the lions from Kpando have been the most difficult and toughest opponents for the Porcupine Warriors.
Clashes between Kotoko and Hearts have produced mixed outcomes. It remains one of the few games which outcomes can be very challenging to predict.
But the story with Heart of Lions is straightforward. It hands them the dominance card over Kotoko; making them favourites most of the time when they are paired together.
Tomorrow at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, the Porcupine Warriors would slug it out in their Matchday 2 encounter of the Ghana Premier League (GPL) with Heart of Lions.
Asante Kotoko and Heart of Lions have faced each other in 12 recorded official head-to-head matches, with Heart of Lions holding the upper hand.
They boast six wins, and two for Asante Kotoko, with the rest of the four ending in draws.
As recent as the last three years, Kotoko has been winless in their last six games, registering three draws with the Lions winning three.
This clearly suggests that the Porcupine Warriors would be engaged in another battle of their lives when they welcome Heart of Lions to the Baba Yara Stadium, a venue that has proven to be a comfortable hunting ground for the visitors.
Coming from a 1-1 draw against Debibi United on Matchday 1 and a Democracy Cup victory over Hearts of Oak, Kotoko must be ready to clip the claws of the deadly Lions if they hope to tame them to halt that trend.
The Bibiani Dun’s Park is also expected to be full of fireworks as GoldStars welcome Hearts of Oak.
It will be one that will draw the fans in the area as both sides prepare the game with different agenda. While Hearts emerged 4-0 conquerors of Berekum Chelsea in Accra, GoldStars suffered a 1-0 loss to Bechem United.
The quest to consolidate the week one gains or to bounce back from defeat would conspire to make the game a mouthwatering one.
Swedru All Blacks would also engage Debibi United at the Swedru Stadium while Berekum Chelsea lock horns with Dreams FC at the Golden City Park and Karela against Bechem United.
At the Aliu Mahama Stadium, Karela United will face Bechem United; Young Apostles versus Basake Holy Stars at the Wenchi Stadium while Aduana FC take on Sarmatex.
The round will commence today with a fierce tie between FC Ashantigold versus Vision FC.
By Andrew Nortey
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When the Greater Accra Region emerged winners of the 35th Inter-Regional Basic Schools Netball Competition at the University of Ghana, Legon, one name stood out above the celebrations: Miss Lilly Akutu Zotorvie, a young shooter from the rural community of Mangoase in the Ada West District.
The Junior High School student of Englishie-Kenya D/A Basic School was the tournament’s standout scorer, netting an astonishing 132 goals in five matches for Team Greater Accra.
That translates into an average of 26.4 goals per match, a remarkable scoring record that has attracted attention from spectators and netball enthusiasts at the competition.
For Miss Zotorvie, however, the impressive statistics tell only part of the story; behind the goals is the journey of a young girl from Mangoase, a community outside Ghana’s major sporting centres, whose talent was discovered at a local netball clinic and gradually nurtured into the regional school competition.
She was reportedly spotted by Mr Ebenezer Kisseh, a journalist and coach, who recognised her potential during a netball clinic.
What could have remained an ordinary community sporting activity instead became the beginning of a promising journey for the young player.
Her performance subsequently earned her an opportunity to compete in the Greater Accra Super Zonal Games, where she impressed enough to progress to the regional level.
At the 35th Inter-Regional Basic Schools Netball Competition, she converted that opportunity into an outstanding individual performance, combining precision, consistency and confidence in front of the post.
Her exploits have also brought renewed attention to the pool of sporting talent that exists in communities far from Ghana’s traditional sporting centres.
For a young player from Mangoase, the progression from a local netball clinic to representing Greater Accra at an inter-regional competition demonstrates the importance of early talent identification and sustained opportunities for development.
Miss Zutorvie’s emergence also presents a reminder that some of Ghana’s promising sporting talents might be found in schools and communities where access to structured training and competitive opportunities remains limited.
Now, after scoring 132 goals in five matches and helping Greater Accra claim the inter-regional title, the young shooter has given coaches, sports administrators and talent scouts another reason to look beyond the country’s major sporting centres.
As Greater Accra celebrates its victory, her performance is likely to remain one of the most memorable individual highlights of the competition – and perhaps the beginning of a much bigger sporting journey for the Ada youngster. -GNA
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