You gotta love the typical Gor Mahia fans. They are something of a combined Arsenal fanatic and Manchester United diehard.
The Gor fans are unapologetically noisy, on-your-face boastful, prone to excessive gloating, suspended in a self-found nirvana, knowing that they are the best and most successful football team in Kenya.
Some of the fans proudly aver that K’Ogalo is not just a football club, it is a movement. We are the best and we know we are. Modesty is atypical to them.
This was so evident after their crushing 5-2 aggregate win over little known South Sudan outfit going by the name El Merreikh Bentiu in the CAF Champions League first preliminary round on August 25.
“5 Star performance. On to the next stage. Tano fresh!” gushed Gor Mahia CEO Raymond Oruo on Facebook.
“We will finish Al Ahly,” my colleague at Nation Victor Otieno vowed.
“Yes, we will go big on them. Gor cannot lose at home. Gor are not a joke,” agreed my other work colleague Cecil Odongo.
Football commentator Bonface Osano said on Facebook that Gor’s win “sets up a mighty clash” against Al Ahly, while African football expert, Collins Okinyo, talked about a “mouthwatering clash" on X.
One fan going by the name of Jamal Malinzi, obviously swayed by the intoxication of a first round victory, stated self authoritatively: “After eliminating Al Ahly we demand CAF to place us in the same group with Sundowns, Raja Casablanca and Young Africans.”
It was surprising that just a week earlier doom and gloom had hung over the Gor Mahia fraternity after they had been beaten 1-0 by El Merreikh in their first leg match in Juba with talk going round that their Brazilian coach Leo Neiva would be chased away by fans should he lose the return leg.
But as the euphoria dies down and the dust settles, I would like to remind Gor Mahia fans of exactly who they will be dealing with in the second preliminary round stage.
Al Ahly are not only record Egyptian champions with an unprecedented 44 Premier League titles, but the most successful football club in Africa.
Founded in Cairo in 1907, the legendary Egyptian club has won an unequalled 12 CAF Champions League titles, a CAF Confederation Cup, a record eight CAF Super Cups and an unparalleled four African Cup Winners' Cups.
They have an unmatched two Arab Super Cups, one Afro-Asian Club Championship, one Arab Club Champions Cup and one Arab Cup Winners' Cup.
Little wonder the Egyptian giants were in December 2000 voted by CAF as the African club of the 20th century. I mean, with 26 official continental titles, this North African outfit is the real movement.
I know Gor Mahia are the record Kenyan champions with 21 titles to their name and they have won one African title, the African Cup Winners' Cup aka Mandela Cup (that was merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confed Cup), but you cannot compare them with Al Ahly. This is more like cheese and chalk.
Interestingly, Gor Mahia have never met Al Ahly in the CAF Champions League or its predecessor, the African Cup of Champions Club, or any other continental tournament for that matter. However, Gor have indeed met other Egyptian sides, all decidedly inferior to Al Ahly.
Tellingly, Gor have never, ever beaten an Egyptian club in the Champions League, home or away, whether on aggregate or a single meeting.
Ismaily eliminated Gor 4-2 (1-1, 3-1) on aggregate in the quarter-finals in 1969, while Zamalek twice knocked out Gor Mahia, awarded the second round of that infamous encounter in Cairo in 1984 where the Egyptian side were leading 1-0 before violence forced play to be stopped, and 3-2 on aggregate in the second round in 1994.
Since 1994, Gor Mahia have never gone beyond the first round of the Champions League. In fact, their best outing in the history of the tournament is that quarter-final appearance in 1994.
Al Ahly were last season's finalists, They have won five of the last eight Champions League titles while appearing in two of the finals.
Whichever way I realistically look at it, I think Gor Mahia, and this is no slight to them and their fans, will be crushed to green powder in this round.
I am ready to walk naked around the Tom Mboya statue on Moi Avenue, just a stone throw away from Nation Centre in Nairobi, if Gor Mahia eliminate the mighty Al Ahly. Heck, I will even chant “K’Ogalo, you are the greatest” while at it.
