Accra (Greater Accra) 14 June 2000
Accra Hearts of Oak may not be the first team to have ended a first round of the local league with a clean sheet and may not be the last.
However, their performance and free scoring at the end of the round of the league sponsored by ABC (Accra Brewery) must have been staggering. The defending champions have banged in 31 of the total 259 goals scored.
Their goals, an average of two per match, put them at the top of the table with 43 points. Thirteen adrift is their closest rivals, Obuasi Goldfields, which, together with the other teams could attest to how fearsome the Phobians have been so far.
The team, which was groping in the dark during the off-season, managed a thin 1-0 win over Real Tamale United in the first league match. Thereafter, they unveiled their enigmatic performance with their free scoring during the rest of the matches. The first to fall victim were their arch-rivals, Kumasi Asante Kotoko who prior to the start of the league had won three Cups, including the Guinness Gala Cup.
That shock 4-0 defeat knocked out Kotoko and had a serious effect on them until the later stages. That heavy defeat coupled with a four-point deduction from their accumulated points for fielding two foreign players - Frank Atsou and Clovis Cambu - without work permit, has pushed them further down the league table to the ninth place with 18 points.
But the vociferous fans of Kotoko believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Their hope could be based on their team's 6-2 spanking of B. A. United in their penultimate match at the Kumasi Sports Stadium and the same could be said of Olympics (Accra Great Olympics).
Olympics have had a terrible first round. They lost six points for failing to honour their second match against King Faisal and but for the three points they won against Kotoko in respect of the two foreign players, they could have been stuck at the bottom of the table. The Dade boys are sixth from the bottom with 17 points and like Kotoko, are beginning to pick the pieces.
The surprise team at the end of the round could be Liberty Professionals. Making their second appearance in the league after gaining promotion to the elite division two seasons ago, Liberty proved that with a little push, the smaller teams could match the bigger ones boot-for-boot. They are third on the table with 26 points, a point less than one-time champions Obuasi Goldfields.
Their ambition of adding Hearts to their victims hit the rocks when they lost 2-4 in the 13th week encounter. That defeat was largely blamed on the absence of their key striker Kofi Deblah, who was at that time, serving an indefinite suspension.
Deblah and Abeiku, skipper of Tano Bofoakwa, were both suspended after the two had engaged in a serious brawl in their 10th week clash at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The league itself has been very interesting and attendance very encouraging, especially matches involving Hearts and Kotoko.
But it was not without drama. In the penultimate match between city rivals, Hearts and Olympics, play was delayed for 30 minutes because Olympics refused to use the dressing room allocated to them alleging that Hearts had earlier gone into the room and sprinkled some "spiritual water" to hypnotize them.
Subsequently, inspections had to be conducted on the tartan tracks.
Two broadcasters - Nii Lantey Vanderpuije of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Kofi Asare Brako of Peace FM - were nearly lynched at the Accra Sports Stadium on two separate occasions for apparently bad reportage on Hearts.
Referees were also not left out of the drama as their poor officiating got to its pick at the Obuasi Stadium where class one referee J. H. Quarshie awarded three dubious penalties in the Goldfields-Liberty match.
Liberty lost 1-2 in a match in which all the goals scored were questionable. But for the security personnel, he would have been lynched. The commencement of the second round has been tentatively fixed for June 25.
GRi../