Aduana Stars reaped what they sowed

The Dormaa-based club, in their quest to make an impact in the CAF Champions League, did good business on the local scene signing Justice Anane from Berekum Chelsea, Caleb Amankwah from WAFA and Paul Aidoo from Medeama to augment their squad.

However, Aduana Stars’ challenge in the course of the season was how to combine domestic football with continental duties and, in the first half of the suspended Ghana Premier League, they struggled to churn out the results, especially in their their away games.

Some suggested the club wanted to pay more attention to their continental quest, and in fact Aduana made a statement when they brushed aside Al-Tahaddi of Libya in the preliminary rounds.

Unfortunately, though, they were booted out of Africa’s premier club football competition after they lost 5-1 on aggregate to Algerian giants Setif.

All hopes were not lost for Aduana Stars since they had to take consolation from the fact that they had a point to prove in in the CAF Confederation Cup where they were relegated to.

They responded this time around by getting past Fosa of Madagascar 7-3 on aggregate to book a place in the group phase of the competition.

But they had perhaps the toughest draw of the CAF Confederation Cup group stage. They were paired with former winners of the CAF Champions League, namely; Asec Mimosas, Vita Club and Raja Casablanca.

Aduana Stars could only manage four points from group A of the competition and the following may have accounted for their dismal performance:

Indiscipline

Aduana Stars had issues with discipline. It became evident when Derrick Sasraku assaulted Elvis Opoku during a training session, following a confrontation between the pair.

Derrick Sasraku was suspended for misconducting himself and it was believed there was no unity amongst the players because of factionalism.

Lack of depth in squad

Aduana Stars did good business before the start of the campaign. They signed Justice Anane from Berekum Chelsea, Caleb Amankwah from WAFA and Paul Aidoo from Medeama to augment their squad. Yahaya Mohammed who had left Aduana Stars rejoined them prior to the start of the campaign.

However, the club also lost some of their key players, namely; Zakaria Mumuni and Derrick Sastraku. The duo got contracts overseas and they had to leave the club in the middle of the campaign.

It is surprising to see how Aduana Stars had to throw in the towel by selling some of their best players in the heat of the CAF Confederation Cup.

Letting go of their jewels is an indication that they lost focus in the course of the campaign

No wonder the Dormaa-based side failed to scare Asec Mimosas at the the Nana Agyemang Badu Stadium and in the end suffered a 2-0 defeat at their own backyard.

Change of coach

The management of Aduana Stars made a mistake by parting ways with Yusif Abubakar. The former Hearts of Oak coach guided the ‘Ogya Boys’ to league triumph last term.

However, they couldn’t have patience with him when his side drew three all against a well-rehearsed Raja Casablanca side at Dormaa.

The management played to the gallery, after it was reported that some of their fans bet on the team and without a victory they were at the losing end, hence called for the head of the coach, whom they think failed tactically.

They replaced Yusif Abubakar with Kenichi Yatsuhashi and the Japanese-American trainer would win one and lose three of the four games played under his watch.

Aduana Stars management would testify the change of coach hampered their progress.

Lack of financial power

Competing in CAF inter club competitions require large pull of resources for the campaign.

Any Ghanaian side that excelled in Africa, either had the financial powers to do good business by buying quality players or maintained their team for a while.

AshGold in 1997 managed to reach the final of the CAF Champions League because they had the finances to attract players from outside the country - Koussie Nousedjie and Nobombe Wake were both influential members of the Hawks of Togo. They also acquired the best players on the local scene. Some of the players like Tony Arhinful, Sammy Adjei, Agyemang Duah were with the Black Stars.

Hearts of Oak in 2000 enroute to winning the CAF Champions League benefitted from the fact that they were able to keep their players for long, so they had a group of players who had played among themselves for some time.

Berekum Chelsea who were the last Ghanaian side to reach the group phase of the CAF Champions League had the backing of Mr. Emmanuel Kyeremeh who was ready to inject enough monies into the running of the club.

They had quality players like Emmanuel Clottey, who had won the GPL goal king in 2006-07 with Gt. Olympics, Jordan Opoku was a key member of the Asante Kotoko teammate that won the league in the 2007/08 season and he also had experience on the African continent.

Aduana Stars didn’t have that kind of finances to buy the sort of quality players required for them to thrive well in the competition, and they couldn’t even hold on to the few qualities they had because good monies came knocking at their door.

Inactivity

The absence of the Ghana Premier League after the Number 12 expose’ by multiple award-winning journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas also had a toll on the Ghanaian champions.

Aduana Stars were not able to get the sort of competition needed to make their players sharper and compete against giants from other parts of Africa.

And without the financial muscle to enable them to go for training tour abroad, they settled on low profile friendly games against Ghana Premier League (GPL) and Division One League outfits.

Aduana Stars didn’t care about playing for pride

The Dormaa-based side ahead of the final group game against Raja Casablanca were already out of the campaign.

However, they needed to play the game for pride, but they threw away everything and their opponent who were on purpose scored six past them.

Connoisseurs of the game weren’t surprised of the score line because Aduana Stars had ill preparation for the tie in Casablanca. They sent

12 outfield players and two goalkeepers for the clash and instead of mapping up a defensive approach to contain their more fancied opponents, they went in with two top and they shipped in six goals.

Aduana Stars’ ‘I don’t care’ attitude made them smash a Ghanaian record for the worst defeat in African inter-club competitions. The worst a Ghanaian club had suffered in continental football was a four-goal margin, but the record now stands at six by Aduana Stars.