Match Preview:- St George Vs Adama Kenema

St George will have its EPL's 14th week postponed match tomorrow, Thursday, at Addis Ababa stadium with Adama Kenema with kick-off 5:00pm.

St George Vs Adama Kenema 2016/17 season meetings!

1st round of 2016/17 EPL match between these teams was held on Sunday, December 11, 2016. It was the league's 5th week match played at 5:30pm. This match had nothing in particular and ended with 0-0 draw. Adama Kenema who went into the game to defend deep, have done their homework well. The Horsemen could not breach Adana Kenema's deep defense and got only a point from the match.

2nd round match of 2016/17 EPL match between these teams was held on Wednesday, March 29, 2017. It was at Abebe Bikila stadium, Adama at 3:00pm. On this match, St George was weak and Adama Kenema played better to win by 1-0.

This match was accompanied by rain, especially the rain during the 2nd half of the match helped Adama Kenema. The Horsemen who were not performing well already were forced to be dominated by Adama Kenema when it started raining heavily. Adama Kenema was attempting to score with long passes. On the other hand, the Horsemen had no attempts as such. 

At the 79th min, former St George player, Dawa Hutesa, scored a header from a long cross to give Adama Kenema the win. After the goal, Adama Kenema had more domination to secure the 1-0 win. 

Current season's numbers of these two teams!

St George had 12 matches in this season, winning 5, drawing 6 and losing 1. And Adama Kenema had 14 matches, winning 5, drawing 7 and losing 2. Based on this, Adama Kenema who played 2 matches more than St George, is 4th in the Premier League table collecting 22 points and St George is 6th with 21 pts.

We will discuss Adama Kenema as it is having this match away.

Adama Kenema had 7 away matches in this season so far. They were able to win 2 out of the 7 matches, drew in 3 and lost 2. They won Wolayita Dicha 2-1 at Wolayita Sodo and Ethio Electric 3-2 at Addis Ababa Stadium. 

The away draws are these clubs:  Mekelakeya with 0-0, Diredawa Kenema with 0-0, and Mekele Kenema with 1-1. The away matches they lost were against Woldiaya by 2-0 and against Arbaminch Kenema by 1-0.

Adama Kenema made a premier league trip to Addis Ababa twice in this season. One was for a match against Mekelakeya and the other against Ethio Electric. They did not lose both matches, drawing with Mekelakeya and beating Ethio Electric by 3-2. Adama Kenema scored a total of 6 goals and conceded 7 in all the away matches.

St George's opponent, Adama Kenema, had 7 Premier League matches at home so far in this season. They had a win in 3 matches out of the 7 matches they had in front of their fans, drawing the rests 4. Adama Kenema did not lose at home so far. They won Hawassa Kenema by 1-0, Ethiopia Coffee by 2-1 and Welwalo Adigrat University by 3-0.

The draws Adama Kenema had in front of its fans at home were with Dedebit with 0-0, Fasil Kenema with 0-0 and Jimma Abba Jifar with 1-1. Adama Kenema scored a total of 8 goals and conceded 3 at home.

St George in 12 matches scored 15 goals and conceded 5 while Adama Kenema scored 14 goals conceding 10 in a total of 14 matches. This makes average of 1.25 goals per game scored by St George and 1.00 by Adama Kenema. Their defense status shows 0.4 conceded goals per game by St George and 0.71 by Adama Kenema.

Adama Kenema's Game Plan!

Coach Tegene Negash's Adama Kenema has been showing a fluctuating performance form weeks to weeks. It has been applying 4-2-2 formation in the past weeks. These are the players in the match that wed 1-1 against Jimma Aba Jifar last week.

Goalkeeper:- Jako Penze

Defenders:- Mignot Debebe, Tesfaye Bekele, Suleiman Mohammed and Andargachew Yilak

Midfielders:- Esmael Sangari, Bereket Desta,, Kenean Markneh, Sisay Toli

Strikers:- Dawa Hutesa, Bucha Shura

Coach Tegene Negesha has a team full of injuries just like St George.  For instance in the above line up, Suleiman Mohammed, a wing defender, is playing in as central defender because Mujib Kasim has an injury. Along with this, it is obvious many of his players are sidelined due to injuries.

Adama Kenema brings direct 4-2-2 formation. Although the team tries playing possessive football, its efficient goal opportunities come from fast transition in the wing and midfield from defense to attack. Especially the two strikers positioning, waiting for a ball from the wing players widening the field, is remarkable.

The link between Adama Kenema's wing players with the strikers is clearly visible. These players cross long passes to Dawa Hutesa and Bulcha Shura creating good goal opportunities for Adama Kenema.

Adama Kenema easily loses the ball to opponents when playing possessive football. The formation they bring in looks to be the culprit for this. The distance between the strikers and the midfielders and the dispersed midfielders seem to make playing possessive football difficult for them. The team seems to be overtaken by opponents in midfield and this makes it lose possession domination having negative impact. We observed opponents take the ball from the team easily when their strikers and midfielders press them.  This is seen making Adama Kenema fall under stress easily. 

Adama Kenema is a team with a strong defense. The team plays its 4 defenders relatively close to the midfielders. Hence, the tight gap between the defense and the goalkeeper seems to keep it from being vulnerable. The team was not easily breached even when it lost its key defenders and goalkeeper to injuries. We noticed it has strong defense even when it had to change players among its 4 defenders due to injuries.

Injuries in St George house!

Natnael Zeleke and Aschalew Tamene are sidelined from this match due to injuries. But all other Horsemen are with the team. But, although Salhadin Seid and Tadele Mengesha are back from injuries and are in full training, it is expected the coach will not make them part of this match. Otherwise, other players who were away due to injuries have a big chance of playing in this match. 

We will win!

We have full faith in Sanjaw!