The K’Ogalo coach admits his side was left in trouble when the Algerian side scored the first goal at Kasarani Stadium on Sunday
Gor Mahia coach Steven Polack has admitted his side was undone by their own mistakes against USM Alger in the Caf Champions League.
The Kenyan champions were facing a tall order going into the return leg clash having lost 4-1 away and it took only three minutes for the visiting Algerian side to take a deserved lead at Kasarani Stadium on Sunday.
K’Ogalo defender Wellington Ochieng’ panicked under pressure from a USM Alger player and conceded a throw-in. Abdulrahim Omar hurled a long throw into the box for Aimen Mahious to flick past Fredrick Odhiambo via a deflection from Joash Onyango.
USM Alger got their second in the 14th minute when a long ball found Mahious in the box and the forward superbly controlled it and fired past Odhiambo to earn his brace.
It was game over for Gor Mahia as they lost 6-1 on aggregate to drop to the Caf Confederation Cup.
“Every [Gor Mahia] player was in a learning process and they should now know the level and quality of teams in the Caf Champions League and improve next time,” Polack told Goal after the match.
“It is very clear if you make mistakes at this level, then you get punished. We were done immediately [USM Alger] scored the first goal.”
Polack, however, admitted his side put up a good show in the second half but could not find the back of the net.
“If you look at our quality of display in the second half, we improved a lot and even created at least 10 chances,” Polack continued.
“My only worry was, we could not score the goals, and I think even if the game continued until the following day, we could not score.”
On dropping to the Caf Confederation Cup, Polack said: “It will be also another big challenge for us and we must get ready to play again.
“Nothing will come easy, we must start better preparations and also make sure we register all our players for the competition. We only had 15 fit players against [USM Alger] and should not be the case in the final round of the next competition.”
K’Ogalo will now shift their focus to the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) where they have a match against Nzoia Sugar at Mumias Complex Stadium on Wednesday.
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