Flashback - St George's journey of 2017 CAF Champions League - Part 2 #CAFCL
2018 CAF Champions League will start at the end of this week. St George will represent Ethiopia for the 4th time in a row who became the first Ethiopian club to enter the group staging in CAF Champions League. Hence, we would like to bring up last year's St George's CAF Champions League experience. On part 1, we flashbacked to St George's 2017 CAF Champions League preliminary and first round matches. Here is part 2.
Mameloudi Sundowns Vs St George
This match St George had is the 1st Africa Champions League match ever in Ethiopian football clubs history. Ethiopians residing in South Africa, started their preparation the moment it was heard about this match. Pretoria's buildings, streets and hotels started speaking out about St George's travel to South Africa. St George fans living in South Africa started getting their flags, jersies and such items ready to welcome their team.
St George delegates were greeted when they reached South Africa and were convoyed by the fans from the airport to their hotel. Pretoria was more brighter by the guest's fans than the home grounders. The matchday came after all the warm welcome.
Mameloudi Sundowns was Africa Champion of the time, winning 2016 Africa Champions League tittle. But this did not worry St George's fans at the place. They were picturing St George challenging Mameloudi Sundowns. Their aim was to show St George can challenge big teams in Africa.
St George fans came to Pretoria from nearby places on matchday. Although Pretoria was hosting rainy and cold weather, St George fans did not refrain from going to Lukas Mouripe stadium. They went to the stadium using different modes of transportation. They started cheering filling one part of the stadium.
Mameloudi Sundowns visited St George's territory repeatedly at the beginning of the match. They created many goal opportunities. But balls which came passed the defence line could not escape from St George's goalkeeper Rober Odunkara. Robert kept his goal post clean deflecting all shots on target. He showed quality performance. As the minutes went by, the Horsemen started defending in more structured manner. And Mameloudi Sundowns started having less and less goal opportunities.
Mameloudi Sundowns are trying to attack using many plans. Since their attempt by building up the ball and passing to diagonally running wing strikers failed, they shifted their strategy to use 2nd balls. But this too failed. The Horsemen, whose plan was to defend, did their job very well. The game ended 0-0. Holding a crucial 1 pt, the Horsemen assured they can not only withstand but also can stop big teams.
The Horsemen coach, Mart Nooij had a stay with a website called SowetanLive before coming back to Addis Ababa. He had an interview about the game and on things related with it. This was what Yeferesegnochu Gets/የፈረሰኞቹ ገጽ/ translated to Amharic to readers at the time.
"Am in Africa for the past 17 years. I have worked as a coach in 6 countries. Therefore, i have more experience in international matches than my players have. This was why St George club chose me. And I am happy.
I am a Dutch coach. In our coaching teaching, match analysis is very important. Therefore, i evaluated Sundowns matches with my staff before our game. We send our people to each match. That's we have a guy in Tunis now.
This draw is victory for us. We played against a team who plays football with short and fast passes. We are not used to play this in our country. Therefore, this will be a good experience for my players. I am proud, we could stop Sundowns and did not let them break our play. In my view, we played keeping out form and well organized."
St George Vs As Vita Club
This match was the group's 2nd match. It was held at Addis Ababa stadium. This was also highly expected match because St George came back with 1 pt from an away match. Addis Ababa stadium was swamped by St George fans as usual. Colorful stadium decors were prepared. New songs were studied that St George fans are known for started being heard.
It is difficult to describe in Addis Ababa stadium when the game started. The stadium vibrated with harmonious song covering every corner. It was dazzling with yellow-red-orange colors. Coach Mart Nooij who prioritizes careful play bringing in 2 holding midfielders came with a plan of scoring from fast transitions.
2 min into the game, Prince Severniho's cross hit the goal post. This was the 1st goal attempt of the match. But Vita took the upper-hand in the 1st 15 min of the match. Then the Horsemen recovered after the 15 min. They took control of the match and created goal opportunities more frequently.
But the match went on goalless. Despite creating goal opportunities and having continuous support from their fans, the Horsemen could not still find the net. The game reached 59th min. Vita's defenders were passing the ball around the box when Abdulkarim Nikima pressed a player and took the ball. He then passed it to Salhadin Seid, who was standing in the penalty box all alone. Salhadin scored a fantastic goal by shooting the ball hard.
The stadium broke into loud noise and vibrated with songs. The fans were lost in uncontrollable happiness. The BEIN Sport commentator, who was live streaming the match, described the situation at the moment as "Players who play in such vibe in front of such fans are lucky. It is to difficult to state St George fans' joy and support at the moment."
St George won the match by 1-0. St George, who made it to Africa Champions League group staging continued Its journey collecting 4 pts.
St George Vs Esperance De Tunis
This match was the group's 3rd match played at Addis Ababa stadium. This match was against one of the clubs in Africa with big names. Coach Mart Nooij had to rush to hospital emergency room in a match against Ethio Electric before this game due to a serious sudden illness. Because he could not recover, the team was led by the vice coaches, Fasil Tekalegn and Zerihun Shengeta.
The vibe in the stadium was as usual. The fans cheering and support had continued like always. The Horsemen has prepared to snatch 3 pts from the North Africa club to escalate to 7. Loosing Behailu Assefa due to an injury, the coaches went into the game making Adane Girma play in no 10.
The Horsemen started the game with a better play. They continued to score with short and long passes. On the 14th min, Robert Odunkara sustained an injury and was changed by Zerihun Tadele. The Horsemen repeatedly fired shots outside the penalty box. But the game was repeatedly interrupted. Esperance players kept lying on the pitch repeatedly to interrupt the game.
After a break, the Horsemen were able to play better with fast passed to create goal opportunities. On the 62nd min, Esperance player fouled a player without a ball and got sent off with a 2nd yellow. The Horsemen with their number upper-hand played putting more pressure and Esperance started defending and focused on interrupting the game every now and then.
The game ended with a 0-0 draw. The Horsemen were compelled to grab only 1 pt from their home ground. But they continued their journey collecting 5 pts from 3 matches.
To be cont....
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