Kumasi Asante Kotoko coach Bashir Hayford is confident his side will overcome their 0-2 deficit against Dolphins of Nigeria and make the group stages of the Africa Confederations Cup.
The Porcupine Warriors have a mountain to climb in a bid to progress in the competition, with Hayford’s own job hanging on the outcome of the game.
Kotoko say the coach’s stay could depend on a good run in the pan-African club competition, and while he refuses to admit it, he would have that in mind.
Hayford claims all the stories about his future are the mechanisms of people happy to see Kotoko fail. If that rhetoric fires up his players, then he can expect a display that will not only do his Cup dreams a world of good, but his Kotoko future too.
Kotoko has been in this kind of situation many times and survived. Yet this has its unique challenges with key players missing in vital areas on the field.
Their inspiration, Emmanuel Osei Kufour, is absent through suspension. The captain brought not only goals, but maturity and the ability to create space for Eric Bekoe to operate in.
In midfield, Daniel Nii Adjei is absent, while Dan Acquah is suspended in central defence.
Kotoko’s inability to register Richard Manu in time for the tournament will leave them short in that department.
Kufour’s absence and the ineligibility of Kwadwo Poku will leave Eric Bekoe and Francis Coffie as the main men upfront for the Porcupine Warriors, while Stephen Oduro is bound to get a place in midfield with Nii Adjei absent.
In the build-up to the game, Kotoko has been keen to marshal the club’s fans to Kumasi from all over the country in a bid to create an atmosphere they hope will give them the twelfth man.
If they get it right, which they often have in Africa, it could be one of those big African Cup days in Oseikrom, even though the odds are heavily stacked against Hayford and his men.
