The Breakdown: Is Pamzo the secret ingredient to Gor’s resurgence?

On 4th February 2020, Football Kenya Federation Premier League side Posta Rangers fired their head coach Sammy ‘Pamzo’ Omollo owing to what they termed as poor performance.

At that time of the season, eleven games in, the mailmen had managed only one win, an unmatched seven draws - six being consecutive – and the remaining three ending in defeats leaving Rangers 13th place on the log with a paltry 10 points.

Fifteen days later, on 19th February, after cameo appearances on the Gor Mahia touchline after Brazilian head coach Roberto Oliviera was deemed unfit to handle the record Kenyan champions, the green army settled on the former Kenyan international to help new coach Manuel Vaz Pinto who had just been appointed to head the team late in January. Pamzo replaced then-assistant coach Patrick Odhiambo who had decamped to Kakamega Homeboyz.

In a previous interview after his appointment, Pamzo stated, “I am privileged to get the opportunity to be at K’Ogalo. My love for the team is evident. As always, I will give my best under the coach to ensure we help the team move forward,” words that evidently were not just words.

At the time, after ten matches played, an off colour and stuttering Gor sat in 10th place on 16 points, sixteen adrift log leading Tusker at the moment. Things, however, did not get off to the fairy tale start. Because in football, things just don’t happen overnight.

In his first four games as the second in command, Gor lost a shocking and worrying three out of four games, tasting defeats against Nzoia Sugar, KCB and against his former side Posta Rangers.

But that Rangers loss, in what seemed as the gelling period, was the last time the reigning champions tasted defeat. Since then, Gor has gone on a five-match winning streak collecting a total 15/15 points in the five games they have played. But why is Pamzo the centre of all this?

Communication

Passing down messages from the technical bench to players on the pitch plays a very integral part to execution on the pitch. Pinto was the new head coach but he was just getting settled in a foreign land. Being Portuguese, and in a country where players consume Sheng’ and a little sprinkle of countable English words, his hardest task was trying to make the players understand what he was saying.

“Philemooon, Philemooon you go,” he would scream and Philemon would give a thumbs up but he would not go as instructed.

Pinto however has his work cut out these days. For the lucky individuals in the playing grounds who get to watch the games and for the viewers who have been keen and attentive, it is Pamzo’s voice that barks instructions to the players on the field, instructing what to do, in Swahili, and the players react to the instructions.

‘Old Boy’

Both Pinto and Pamzo were new to the job yes. Pinto had flown all the way from Christiano Ronaldo’s land of Portugal into Kenya for the first time. Unlike Pinto, Pamzo is Gor through and through. Apart from knowing a majority of the players individually, the former player had the advantage of having played at the club in his early days and even coaching them in their continental quests. As Pinto was getting to know his way around the club, his able assistant hit the ground running, covering the loopholes that Pinto would have faced as a newbie. Something Gor player John Macharia believes has been key to Gor’s resurgence.

“Pamzo has been a very big differential since he came because he knows many players at the club. Pinto came midway through the season and found the club in progress, so taking on the team like that is not easy especially since the season had already started. But Pamzo had been here, he knows the players, he knows the players’ strong points and he knows how to use them, so he advises the coach accordingly on what to do,” he told Mozzart Sport.

Without the knowledge of having someone who seemed as an insider at the club, Pinto would have struggled. But with Pamzo, things appear to be getting better day by day.

Enforcer

According to head coach Vaz Pinto, during a match situation, he always needs a bit of time to think on what tactical formula to come up with when faced with an opponent who has proven tough to crack. So when he retreats to his chair to engage his tactical nous, Pamzo steps in and complements him ever so well.

“Sometimes, I need to think about tactical changes needed in the game. So I have to sit and evaluate what is happening on the pitch and what to do. During that moment Pamzo does really well and that’s why you see him stepping on the touchline to urge them on and enforce instructions by communicating to the boys really well,” the head coach revealed to Mozzart Sport.

From being 10th and sixteen points off the pace, Gor and Pamzo and Pinto currently sit in 4th place on the log on 31 points, just seven adrift log leading Tusker. Gor, however, has played one match less and could, if they win their game in hand, close that once wide gap to only four points. Ladies and gentlemen; the Pamzo effect.