Medeama SC floored Ashanti Gold at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday afternoon to lift the Ghana Football Association’s Super Cup trophy.
A late controversial finish by Bennett Ofori was enough to send the sparse spectators who had enjoyed the scientilatting performance from the Mauve and Yellows frenzy.
Tom Strand on Wednesday stated emphatically he was going to win the trophy, and the alacrity with which the MTN FA Cup champions took the game to the Miners showed they were ready to replicate the words the Swede told the press at the launch of the match at the FA secretariat.
They hit hard at the premier league title holders from the blast of the referee’s whistle, dominating the early exchanges and Ashgold had to revise their notes. The Miners quickly settled for the counter-attacking approach and soaked the enormous pressure Medeama SC poured on them.
However, they were very poor in executing the plan as the players hardly knew where to find their colleagues on the pitch, Medeama won all the 50-50 balls and asked Fatau Dauda numerous questions, but fortunately, he had answers.
At the other end, Muntari Tagoe was enjoying a holiday until AshGold broke through the right flank with Augustine Sefa. The final ball though, was feeble.
Few minutes later, the under post denied AshGold who woke from their siesta the lead when Emmanuel Osei Baffour struck a well executed interplay with Tijani Joshua.
The pendulum again swung in favour Medeama SC who were doing almost everything right but only a goal deluded them. Donsu who was AshGold biggest threat orchestrated the midfield with his super balls. Fatau Dauda, AshGold’s best on the day was at his best and pulled off fantastic saves to deny Benjamin Bature and and Yaw Ansah, forcing the game to end goalless in the first half.
Medeama SC took off from where they left in the 2nd half of the game by taking the game to Ashgold like they did in the early minutes of the first half. Ashgold, however managed to curtail the attacking threats of the Tarkwa-based club.
The tempo of the game cool as Medeama settled into the ‘control the game’ approach.
The glorious opportunity of the match fell to Kadri Mohammed to shake the net, after Hudu Yakubu’s corner kick found his head in an unmarked position, but his header missed the post.
Medeama responded by putting together a fast counter attacking play that finally fell the way of Benjamin Bature, their leading attacker. However he shot wide to create no problem for Fatau Dauda in post.
Muntari Tagoe pulled off a super save to deny Joseph Atto Bissah who struck a sumptuous bicycle kick with less than a quarter to the end of the match. His save forced to ball onto the path of Emmanuel Osei, he slotted home the rebound, but flagged offside.
Bernard Ofori grabbed the headlines with three minutes to end proceedings when he scored from a position but believed he was offside, but the referee pointed to the center circle for AshGold to restart the match.
And Medeama led 1 nil. Three additional minutes was not enough for AshGold to claw back into the game, and the CAF Confederation Cup participants matched to the VIP for the Super Cup trophy — defending Tom Strand’s words last Wednesday.
Ashgold starting line-up: Fatau Dauda, Augustine Sefah, Tijani Joshua, Awudu Nafiu, Kadiri Mohammed, Eric Opoku, Joseph Atto Bissah, Shafiu Mumuni, Isaac Amoah, Emmanuel Osei Baffour, Nuhu Fuseini
Medeama starting line-up: Muntari Tagoe, Moses Sarpong Samuel Adade, Paul Aidoo, Daniel Amoah, Malik Akowuah, Atta Adjei, Kwasi Donsu, Benjamin Bature, Abass Mohammed, Enoch Atta Adjei.
Super Sub: Bernard Ofori Floor AshGold In Battle of Champions.
