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Gor Mahia fans are marking 11 years since they suffered one of the crushing moments when K’Ogalo failed to clinch the title on the final day, having been favourites all season
It is 11 years since the most painful moment in Gor Mahia’s history when they lost the Kenyan Premier League title on the last day of the season.
Gor Mahia went into the game against now-defunct Thika United on November 11, 2012, with high expectations. They were top of the table but needed an outright win to prevent defending champions Tusker FC from piping them.
However, the script went horribly wrong. Wycliffe Opondo took a quick corner on the left and played the ball to Francis Kahata who swung in a left-footed cross that Gor Mahia goalkeeper Jerim Onyango spilled.
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Onyango’s ball fell in Kennedy ‘Agogo’ Otieno’s path and he made no mistakes from close range, tapping the ball home, to send panic among Gor supporters at City Stadium.
With Tusker hammering Nairobi City Stars 3-0 at the Hope Centre to move temporarily top of the table, the K’Ogalo faithful still hoped for the best from their team.
Gor Mahia huffed and puffed until late on when Rama Salim restored parity, guiding home Moses Odhiambo’s pass. However, that proved too little too late as Thika United held firm to deny Gor the win, and with that, Tusker sneaked away with the title.
A somber mood engulfed City Stadium as Gor Mahia players and fans wailed and cursed, the pain too much to bear.
Lifting the distraught players off the pitch was not an easy task and angry fans would later engage police in running battles as the disappointment descended into chaos.
It is easy to understand why the mood was somber as Gor Mahia had not won the title since 1995 and had hoped that the 17-year wait was finally coming to an end. Gor put up an impressive campaign as James Sianga’s Dream Team of 2008 started coming of age.
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“The journey home was very long. I couldn’t sleep that night. I shed tears. It was such a heartbreaking day. But I am thankful for my wife and kids because they were there for me, encouraged me, and told me it was not the end of the world,” Onyango later told Capital Sports in 2020.
But instead of letting that moment of pain break them, Gor used the disappointment to fuel their dreams even further and the following year, they claimed the 2013 title under former Harambee Stars coach Bobby Williamson with chants of ‘Gini wasekao’ [we have taken this] in the air.
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“We sat down as players after that match and we agreed that we should put that pain behind and use the disappointment to win the title the next season. We agreed that we will win it, retain it and keep it. That is what we did. I can say losing it in 2012 was a blessing in disguise,” added Onyango.
That 2012 disappointment did not just lift Gor to the 2013 title but it set the tone for their renaissance as after ending the 18-year drought, they turned into a winning machine that no team in Kenya and indeed in East Africa, could handle.
K’Ogalo would go on to win the title three straight times before Tusker pegged them back in 2016 but they were back on the winners’ podium, claiming four straight crowns between 2017 and 2020 before the brewers denied them back-to-back.
However, in 2022-23, they got their revenge over Robert Matano when they won the title on the final day, denying Tusker by just one point, for a record-extending 20th title.
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Eight league titles since that November afternoon in 2012 as well as impressive performances in the CAF Confederation Cup, including a quarter-final in 2018-19, suggest that Gor Mahia perhaps needed that moment of pain to wake up from their near two decades of slumber.
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