By: Abdul Lateef Saddick
The long anticipated start of the Ghana Premier League kicked off across eight centers in the country on the 20th of February through to the 21st.
The league which came with a lot of hullabaloo about its start with a placed injunction, came with much joy among football fans in the country.
Even though many do not like how football is been managed in the country, fans eagerly wanted to see the start of the league to keep them alive during weekends with football actions.
The love of football in the country have been an open secret and the weekend round of matches brought about many talking points.
From the farthest point of the country on the north to the far east through to the west and eventually arriving in the south were all football actions.
Let us take a look at the "talking points" of the weekend round of matches.
YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE
Experience, they say, comes with a cost. The local league has of late seen massive entrance of players who have had some time of their career in foreign clubs to resuscitate their playing career especially last season.
Experience still counts in every team and to some extent a football league in totality and it is still part of the week-young-league among various teams where almost every team has at least an experience player.
Over the weekend, the league actions in all league centers produced quality young players who carried the fortunes of their clubs on their shoulders.
They did not only display extraordinary performance on the field, they showed discipline and leadership qualities on the pitch.
The Ghanaian league which has an average age of 24.3 years this season was overshadowed with a superb exhibition of young and energetic players who gave live and hopes to the Ghanaian game in the next league matches.
Combined with the experienced, the young ones produced scintillating performances that attracted and took fans who trooped to the various stadia off their seats in awe in countenance to the football been displayed.
The opening game of the season saw the most youthful side among the sixteen team in the league, WAFA, teach record champions Kumasi Asante Kotoko some football lessons throughout the ninety minutes of football.
The likes of Gideon Waja, Martin Antwi and Charles Boateng were a thorn in the flesh of the Porcupine Warriors.
Former Hearts of Lions talented midfielder Isaac Twum, now with Inter Allies, was also on display at the Tema Astroturf Park as he was on the score sheet for his side against Aduana Stars together with 18-year-old Mensah Kwamina Ropapa .
Baba ‘John’ Mahama of Techiman City showed his quality against Berekum Chelsea as the newly-promoted side won by a lone a goal against Berekum Chelsea. He has been the most mentioned name after match-day-one of the Ghanaian league.
Samudeen Ibrahim was the toast of the fans and emerged the Man of the Match at the Accra Sports Stadium where the Phobians registered a solitary win over New Edubiase.
Many were superb and if they get consistency and their discipline on the move and most importantly injury free, we are promised of good, quality and exceptional lads in our youth and juvenile national teams.
IMPRESSIVE GREENHORNS
Newly promoted sides in this year’s league had a good run in the early exchanges of the league in match-day-one except Ebusua Dwarfs who were tamed by another newly promoted side Dreams FC at home in Cape Coast.
Two of the three teams who have had promotion to the league are completely having a debut taste of Ghana's elite club competition.
Dreams FC and Techiman City FC are the greenhorns in the league where Dwarfs are back into the league after been relegated in 2014.
Dreams FC didn't have a bad pre season and had a good start to the season by traveling to Dwarfs at the Robert Mensah Stadium to get all three points which puts them in a good position in their quest to staying in the league in their first season.
Surprisingly it was, Techiman City were victorious against 2011 Champions, Berekum Chelsea by a goal to nil.
Statistics and research have shown that clubs who are promoted to the top flight league will have at least one of them relegated at the end of every successful season in Ghana.
From what we saw in the first round of matches, both Dreams FC and Techiman FC including Ebusua Dwarfs mean business to stay in the league notwithstanding the fact the fact that the latter lost to the Dreams in Cape Coast.
It is only one out of thirty matches played so it will preposterous to pre-empt any outcome.
The newcomers in the league look purposeful and ready to defy all negatives to realize the importance of protecting the tag of Premier League participants they have now.
As to how they will be fairing at the end of the season, their performance and attitude in the rest of the twenty-nine matches will determined their stand.
VOCIFEROUS SUPPORT
Did I ever hear someone say Ghana football is dead? We have to start writing different notes on the prejudice and presumptions we have about the league because Ghanaians have showed extraordinary support to how much they love the Ghanaian game since Saturday when the league started. As if it was in Germany where the Bundesliga has an average of 45000 spectatorship per match as the best watched league in the world, fans showed how enthused they were for the start of the league by trooping to the various centers to watch league games.
The atmosphere at Sogakope when Kotoko visited WAFA was tremendous not to talk of the crowd seen in Accra on Sunday when Hearts played New Edubiase even after a wishy-washy pre-season campaign by the rainbow team.
Paradoxically, Techiman City should have the best of the week as they surprisingly tamed 2011 league champions Berekum Chelsea and also made over GH57,000 cedis as gate proceeds.
Isn't that superb for a newly promoted side that is entirely having a fresh taste of top flight football in the country?
How much will they get when they host Kotoko? What about Hearts of Oak and AshantiGold?
The tumultuous call from the various centers by the passionate football fans this week was resounding and encouraging.
Despite the fact that Black Stars still remains the flagship football team of Ghana football, football fans have shown that the local league is the first point of call when it come to affection and the zealousness of football is the local game.
In fact, there were tough matches across Europe that could have taken away the interest of fans but it still did not stop fans from visiting league centers.
It has been the perception of many administrators that foreign leagues have engulfed much love of football on the part of local fans but over the weekend that perception was flawed to attest to the fact that if proper mechanisms are implemented well pertaining to our local football, the turnout will be massively exciting.
Long Live Ghana Football!
Long Live the Local League!!