As part of his advise to his former club ahead of their classic premier league match against rivals Accra Hearts of Oak on Sunday, former Asante Kotoko midfielder Stephen Oduro has made much more breathtaking revelations concerning that he believes led to the Porcupine Warriors defeat to Accra Hearts of Oak in the 2004 CAF Confederations Cup final in Kumasi, and the club’s recent 1-0 defeat to the same opponents in the Ghana Premier League (GPL) last season.
Oduro made the revelations in an exclusive interview with Ghana’s leading sports news outlet, ghanasportspage.com in a preview to the Super Clash between Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko come Sunday at the Accra sports stadium.
The legendary midfielder, Oduro, 38, recounted how the use of black magic, locally known as ‘juju’ in the by Asante Kotoko in the Confederation Cup final match caused the team’s heartbreaking defeat by 8-7 on penalties to Accra Hearts of Oak at the favourite home grounds of Asante Kotoko, the Baba Yara sports stadium, Kumasi.
To recall, the 2004 CAF Confederations Cup final, which was the newly created CAF Confederation Cup, was contested for by the two most successful football clubs in Ghana, Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak over two legs. The first leg was played at the Accra sports stadium and ended 1-1 after Hearts of Oak’s Louis Agyemang found the back of the net in the 90th minute to cancel Michael Osei’s 61st minute strike for the Porcupines. The reverse fixture at the Baba Yara sports stadium also ended 1-1, thanks to goals from Charles Taylor and Lawrence Adjah-Tetteh in the 53rd and 81st minutes for Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak respectively.
Hearts of Oak proceeded to win the match 7-8 on penalties after Edmund Owusu-Ansah and Joe Hendricks missed their kicks for Asante Kotoko. According to Stephen Oduro, Asante Kotoko lost that virgin cup to Accra Hearts of Oak because the team decided to use black magic suggested by some officials, which had a turning effect on the players on the field of play. He similarly alleged, that similar incident was the reason for the Porcupine Warriors 1-0 defeat to the Phobians last season at the Accra sports stadium, a defeat that eventually surrendered the league title to the Phobians.
“One thing that also disturbed us [the Kotoko fraternity] was the the Confederation Cup that Hearts came to take away from us”, Oduro bemoaned. “The one for instance, that was a great setback that any day I remember it I cry because, when we started this Africa [competition] it was we same players that played the matches [without any black magic]. But when it came to the final match then they [probably referring to the top brass of the club] came to us [the players] saying they have gone somewhere and they’ve been told that unless Charles Taylor wears the captain’s armband, if not we will lose, Oduro narrated.
He added, “Then they gave us some objects of black magic power to apply on our bodies and bath with it. So the players, before you wear the jersey, even the jersey had already been wet [soaked in such strange liquid] and you would have to wash down with that water with so much impurities before we wore our boots to the filed. Now when we went onto the field none of us was at liberty or of themselves like the way we played against them previously. We were on these things and we went into penalties and Hearts of Oak came to lift the cup away from us”, he lamented.
