How glorious Gor beat superstitious Simba for ‘81 Cecafa title

Gor Mahia forward Sammy Omollo (left) goes for against Re-Union in this Super League match played in 1986. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • “Magoli mlifunga hatukatai-iiii, lakini soka yenyewe mliona-aaa? Ni chenga ngapi mlikula?” (You scored the goals alright, we’ll grant you that. But did you see our exquisite display? How many times did our skills leave you clueless?) If somebody says this to you after his team has just lost 3-1, what are you supposed to tell them?
  • My personal favourite was Murage Kabange. I thought he was an outstanding left winger with amazing bursts of speed and power packed shots. Throughout the tournament, he hustled defenders and accounted for a great portion of Simba’s attack.
  • Gor had beaten Zambia’s Kabwe Warriors 2-1 in a duel that went 120 minutes. Both were thus deserving finalists. Gor were defending the title they had won the previous year after defeating compatriots AFC Leopards in an all-Kenyan final in Malawi. Simba wanted it – badly.

There is an old saying that it is pointless to pick up a fight with journalists because they buy ink by the barrel.

That may be true some of the time and even most of the time. But Kenyan sports journalists, who have covered Tanzanian football, especially in its glory years of the late 70s and early 80s, know they can be beaten.

Through its two major clubs – Yanga and Simba – Tanzania at one time gave this region some excellent players on the football pitch. Names such as Peter Tino, Abdalla Kibadeni, Nicodemus Njohole, Omar Mahadhi, Gibson Sembuli, Juma Mkabi, Zamoyoni Mogella, Mohammed Bakari, the Manara brothers, Sunday and Kitwana, and many others, belong to the region’s football lore.

Yet there is something remarkable about Tanzania. It has never become a football power. Not Taifa Stars, not the two clubs. They could play exhibition football of enchanting quality, but the trophies always went to someone else. Even more breathtaking for their fanatical fans was they tendency to go all the way and then fall in the big stage of Cup finals.

Probably because of this frustration, Tanzanian sports journalists, incomparable in the use of the Swahili language, devised a way of getting back at us whenever we taunted them about their losses. This was usually done over drinks after the work was done. For every loss they suffered, the Tanzanians had a ready explanation.

However badly they played, it was always somebody else’s fault. They had immunized themselves from all mistakes.

“Magoli mlifunga hatukatai-iiii, lakini soka yenyewe mliona-aaa? Ni chenga ngapi mlikula?” (You scored the goals alright, we’ll grant you that. But did you see our exquisite display? How many times did our skills leave you clueless?) If somebody says this to you after his team has just lost 3-1, what are you supposed to tell them?

Conspiracy theories

And then the never ending conspiracy theories and inestimable capacity to play victim: “Refarii ni wenu, linesmen ni wenu, mpira ni wenu, uwanja ni wenu, mashabiki ni wenu, waganga ni wenu – tutakosaje kufungwa sisi? Lakini soka yenyewe tuliwachezea, ama?” (The referee is yours, the linesmen are yours, the ball is yours, the field is yours, the witchdoctors are yours - how are we not going to concede the goals? But we taught you a soccer lesson, didn’t we?)

When I covered the 1984 East and Central Africa Club Cup for the Nation, I told our readers before the first ball was kicked: “You can consult the fortune tellers if you like, pray God for your team’s success. But the Club Cup has already been won: Tanzanians don’t lose.”

For the 1981 tournament, Simba were the reigning Tanzanian champions. And quite a team they brought to Nairobi. Their goalkeeper, Omar Mahadhi, was Taifa Stars’ number one. Travelling in a public bus in the course of an earlier tournament, I listened with rapt attention as two Tanzanian fans animatedly discussed their team.

One of them, speaking with the kind of authority that would put a psychologist in the shade, told his colleague: “Mahadhi is a camera addict. Watch him. Whenever he makes a save, he must roll over and perform acrobatics to enable photographers to take his picture.

t doesn’t matter how simple the save is. It might be even just picking up a loose back pass. But Mahadhi must roll over and pause long enough for the pressmen to photograph him. Mahadhi hupenda picha sana, sana!” (Mahadhi likes pictures very much!)

I found that curious; he had the wrong man, I thought. I had never seen Mahadhi perform any needless gymnastics. The man who used to do that as a matter of course was Juma Pondamali, Mahadhi’s rival for the Taifa Stars jersey. Pondamali was as good a goalkeeper as he was a clown.

The rest of Simba’s squad fills me with only the best memories of a fiesta that transcended the game of football and became a cultural festival never to be forgotten: Daudi Salum, Mohammed Kajole, Athumani Juma, Mohammed “Tall” Bakari, Nicodemus Njohole, Abdalla Mwinyimkuu, Ezekiel “Juju Man” Greyson, Adam Sabu, Thuweini Ali and Murage Kabange.

Bakari was not just tall in stature; he was a prominent presence in the field. He dominated the defence with timely tackles and clearances. No rough play, no tantrums – just business. When this game was over, I asked Gor Mahia’s star forward, Nashon Oluoch, to single out only one defender for particular mention. He did not hesitate. He said: “Mohammed Bakari “Tall”.

My personal favourite was Murage Kabange. I thought he was an outstanding left winger with amazing bursts of speed and power packed shots. Throughout the tournament, he hustled defenders and accounted for a great portion of Simba’s attack.

Ezekiel “Juju Man” Greyson had an honest nickname. Everybody knew that virtually all the teams participating in the contest were consulting their oracles for blessings and protection from their “enemies.” But nobody wanted to admit and talk openly about it. Yet witchdoctors were doing roaring business, guiding their clients through the pitfalls of pepo mbaya (bad omens).

Simba was the only team that made no bones about admitting their devotion to the oracle. In fact, they were so openly superstitious that pursuing them about the matter was akin to asking a hawker what he was doing with his wares. I never got to know whether “Juju Man” Greyson was the Simba high priest in whose protective custody all the charms were kept. But he sure was a great midfield general; I couldn’t figure Simba without him.

By the time Gor Mahia squared off with Simba for this final, I had seen enough of them to conclude that they were destined for high places. There was a magical quality about this team which blended youth and experience and which combined a rhythmic teamwork with superb individual flair.

It is a team that had undergone two baptisms of fire – in 1979 and 1980 – and came out stronger from each experience. In 1979, they had crashed against Canon of Cameroon. And the following year, they had come to grief against Bendel Insurance of Nigeria.

Famously successful away team

In the memories of Gor Mahia fans, scarcely will there be a game of heartbreak to beat the one they played against Bendel in Nairobi. In exact contrast to their great rivals, AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia were a famously successful away team. They could perform disastrously at home and spectacularly well in other countries. Once I asked Paul Oduwo – he was nicknamed “Cobra” – why this was so.

The tall captain gesticulated aggressively towards the massed stands of the team’s supporters at the Nairobi City Stadium and spurt out: “Hawa mafans! Wanatuweka presha sana! Afadhali huko mbali!” (These fans! They put too much pressure on us! We prefer playing far away!”

In the case of Bendel, Gor Mahia were contesting a quarter final place in the Caf Champions League, then known as the Cup of Champion Clubs. Several thousand miles away from home in the mid-western Nigerian city of Benin, the Kenyans had chalked up a 2-1 win over their hosts. They only needed a draw of any score and could even afford the luxury of a 0-1 loss in Nairobi to go through. They were within touching distance of victory.

But football being football, a catastrophe happened. Bendel hit Gor 3-2 before a shell shocked multitude at Jogoo Road. All three goals came from long distance free kicks. These were the sort of balls that always gave goalkeeper Dan Odhiambo nightmares; he never seemed to see them coming and always got busy when the ball was already behind him.

Against Simba, Dan was not starting. He would come in later but only after the left-sided, on-form Charles Ondiek got injured. The other players were Peter “Bassanga” Otieno, George “Solo”

Otieno, Bobby Ogolla, Mike Ogolla, Timothy Ayieko, Andrew Obunga, Allan Thigo, Sammy Owino, George Yoga and Nashon Oluoch. This was a rock solid team, highly experienced and playing at the height of its power.

But Simba had dispatched Limbe Leaf of Malawi, one of the tournament’s favourites, to earn their place in the final and their free flowing attacks, orchestrated by the plucky Kabange on the left wing, could destabilize even the most redoubtable of defences.

Gor had beaten Zambia’s Kabwe Warriors 2-1 in a duel that went 120 minutes. Both were thus deserving finalists. Gor were defending the title they had won the previous year after defeating compatriots AFC Leopards in an all-Kenyan final in Malawi. Simba wanted it – badly. The sun shone brilliantly over the City Stadium on the afternoon of Saturday, January 31, 1981 as every available space was taken up by fans eager to know who between these two proud champions would prevail.

It was as if the world had stopped to see this duel between the Kenyans in an all white kit and the Tanzanians in all red.

When a team named after a legendary magician and another which unapologetically proclaims it is inspired by magic meet, which way will victory go? There are times when the game of football promises epic encounters that turn out to be one-sided contests.

And there are times when we forecast an easy win for a team and end up writing its obituary. In this case, the magic of Gor Kogalo was well and truly kicking. And the charms of Simba’s medicine man seemed to lose potency almost as soon as the referee blew his starting whistle.

Legendary energy

The man behind Simba’s destruction was Allan Thigo, whose energy even late in the afternoon of his career was legendary. He was, as they called him, the 90-minute man. Thigo was everywhere in the pitch supplying balls. His midfield twin, Sammy Owino, played the game of his life, attacking, defending and distributing in equal measure.

Nashon Oluoch at left wing gave Simba’s Daudi Salum a torrid time. His feinting, slippery movements sometimes left the harassed right full back gasping for breath. Quite often, Salum was forced to tag at Oluoch’s shirt in a desperate effort to stop the speedy forward. George Yoga, the striker, kept hammering away at Mahadhi and the goalkeeper was a credit to his team – grabbing and punching away balls from raid after raid.

But throughout Simba’s travails, I think the man who shone brightest was Bakari “Tall”. If it were not for his timely interventions, the score line was going to read a much heftier figure than the paltry lone goal Gor ended up with.

But this goal, when it came, was a classic. Thigo, deep in midfield, strolled majestically, looking around. From far to his left, he spotted Oluoch sprinting past Salum. He hit a beautiful, grass-shaving ball which the youngster made solid contact with. With Salum characteristically trailing him, Oluoch rounded an on-coming Athumani Juma and slammed the ball into the net before Mahadhi could narrow the angle between them.

You might have expected this goal to sting Simba into a furious counter attack but what actually happened was that Gor nearly added a second one through Sammy Owino almost immediately.

Only Mahadhi’s acrobatic skills saved Simba. Late in the game, Murage Kabange did manage to get space for himself on the edge of the penalty box but he was a second too hesitant before being crowded out by the two Ogollas, Bobby and Machine.

At full time, the 1-0 score for Gor reflected nothing of the massive dominance they had of this match. With the last whistle came the non-stop party. President Moi was quick to jump in. He sent his now famous congratulatory message from his Kabarak residence which read: “I am overjoyed to hear of your well deserved triumph and wish to assure you that the entire country and myself embrace your championship with a lot of joy and pride. You have brought a lot of glory to your club and your country and it would be very fitting if I baptized you Nyayo 1st Eleven.”
Of course, Gor gave their new name a wide berth.

Roy Gachuhi, a former Nation Media Group sports reporter, is a writer with The Content House. @contenthousetrust.ke