After a long wait, the 96th Mashemeji Derby was finally staged on Sunday, 30 March, as AFC Leopards welcomed their arch-rivals Gor Mahia at the Nyayo Stadium with the two sides battling out to a barren draw.Follow our WhatsApp channel for more newsK’Ogalo have been dominant in this fixture in recent times and were slight favourites to win the match but were shut out by Ingwe.Gor Mahia coach desperate for Benson Omala’s scoring instinctsSpeaking to the press after the match, Gor Mahia head coach Sinisia Mihic singled out two main reasons why they settled for a draw, the first one being conceding possession cheaply.“We lost too many balls in the match. We have many players who cannot just make simple passes but instead give a lot of miss passes. I do want to mention individual players, but most of them did not impress me,” said Mihic.##NAJAVA_MECA_8823519##While lamenting, Mihic drew a comparison to reigning FKF Premier League Most Valuable Player (MVP) Austin Odhiambo, who, according to him, was the benchmark of how the passing should be.“You do not have many players in the Kenyan league like Austin (Odhiambo). Maybe I should mention him because he is a good example of someone who knows how to pass. FIFA steps in as match-fixing allegations against Patrick Matasi take a new turnHe did not train for two weeks, but you could see how calm he was on the ball,” he added.Secondly, the 48-year-old tactician attributed the barren draw to a blunt attack which is occasioned by the unavailability of top strikers in the club, drawing comparison to Spanish club Real Madrid.##NAJAVA_MECA_8823503##“The problem is that we do not have quality strikers in Kenya. We do not have many strikers like Omalla, and that is the truth. We need to find elsewhere. Even at Real Madrid, there is no Spaniard in their forward line. They pay millions to get strikers. We do not have strikers,” he said.FKFPL top scorer Ryan Ogam likely to miss remainder of season after undergoing surgeryMihic was equally put to task on the shyness of his strikers and particularly Congolese import Gedeon Bandeka who was replaced in the second half.“I said I don’t want to speak about individual players, but the changes I made can tell you what I thought of the performance of the players.”##NAJAVA_MECA_8823517##Further, Mihic once again defended his decision to play with five defenders, a decision that caused so much criticism from the Green Army.“Look, we have many teams in the world playing with the same system. Man City played the same, Inter Milan played the same, and all won titles,” he concluded.
