Gor Mahia’s CAF Champions League campaign crashed out in catastrophic fashion on Sunday night, as Pyramids FC delivered a brutal 5-1 thrashing at the 30 June Stadium in Cairo, completing a 7-1 aggregate defeat.
Head coach Charles Akonnor did not hold back at full-time, unleashing a scathing post-match assessment directly calling out senior figures for elementary blunders that destroyed the team’s momentum.
Addressing the media after the final whistle, a visibly frustrated Akonnor singled out specific defensive breakdowns, noting,
“We said if you are in a danger zone, clear the ball, let the ball go. Kibwage was not able to kick the ball out, Frank also had the ball, instead of kicking the ball out he passed through there, and even our national team goalkeeper Byrne Omondi, there were two people who gave him options to pass the ball and he chose otherwise.
I am not the type of person who always talks about individual players, I don’t do that, but today it was clear for everybody to see and it destroyed a lot of things for us.”
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Trailing 2-0 from the first leg in Nairobi, K’Ogalo surrendered two early goals to Walid El Karti and Nasser Maher before Youssef Obama added a third right on the stroke of halftime, rendering David Okoth’s stoppage-time response a temporary consolation.
Emphasizing how much those errors cost the side, Akonnor added, “To be honest, I am really upset with the individual errors that we made. We gave them four goals as a result of individual mistakes, and at this level, you don’t do such mistakes, it is unacceptable.
I am really upset with some of the guys you rely on as senior players and national team players. You don’t expect them to make such mistakes, and to concede such goals is not acceptable.”
Despite a brief spell of improved fight after the break, Pyramids exploited late spaces to seal the five-goal margin through Mostafa Ziko and Mahmoud Zalaka, ending Gor Mahia’s continental journey.
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Any hopes of mounting a second-half fightback were completely put to rest late on, as a costly error from Byrne Omondi handed Mostafa Ziko an easy fourth, before Mahmoud Zalaka added a fifth in stoppage time to seal the blowout.
Reflecting on the exit and the work ahead, Akonnor concluded, “Now the Champions League is over, and I must say it’s rather unfortunate. We’ve shown videos, we’ve talked about it, and the errors keep recurring. It is about time players wake up because this is their job, this is what they are paid for, and you cannot keep making such mistakes.”
With the heavy continental exit now behind them, focus shifts immediately back to domestic duties in the SportPesa League, where Gor Mahia are expected to kick off their campaign this weekend against Murang’a Seal.