NAIROBI, Kenya, June 29 – After being crowned the best tactician in the BetKing Premier League for the month of May, Gor Mahia head coach Carlos Vaz Pinto says his team has a big chance of defending the title.
Pinto guided K’Ogalo to a perfect month in May, winning all the four matches they played to gather maximum 12 points available.
That result, according to Pinto was because of team work and commitment from his charges and the technical bench and they are looking to continue with the same winning mentality.
“This award is not mine, its for my players and technical bench, its team work and we deserve this. When a coach wins an award it’s because all people have worked well. We put a lot of commitment and focus, as a team we put in the winning mentality, I told the players that first is to understand they are competing with themselves before taking the same mentality to opponents,” Pinto said after bagging the award on Tuesday at the team’s training backyard.
“We need to continue to achieve this type of performance, we can be champions, we have a chance, if we take a game at a time,” the Gor coach added.
Captain Harun Shakava, said, “We worked hard in the month of May because our goal was to move up the table, we were not doing well, every player was working hard to see us achieve our goal. We still have a lot of games to play so we can still be champions,” Shakava remarked.
Pinto guided the defending champions to a one hundred percent record in the month, as they registered four wins in as many matches.
Gor began the month with a hard fought 1-0 win over league returnees Nairobi City Stars at the Utalii Grounds before humbling Sofapaka 2-1 at their backyard.
The 18-time record champions K’Ogalo narrowly edged out Vihiga United 1-0 in their third match of the month played at the Mumias Sports Complex and replicated similar scoreline in the last encounter against Wazito at Utalii.
Pinto beat KCB tactician Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno to the award with AFC Leopards coach Patrick Aussems closing the top three bracket. Zico who was decorated as the December coach of the month led KCB to collect seven points out of a possible twelve so is Aussems, but the bankers had better goal returns.
The Portuguese becomes the fifth coach to befeted this season after Zico, Francis Kimanzi, Andre Casa Mbungo and Stanley Okumbi who were awarded in December, January, February and March respectively.
Pinto walks home with a customized trophy and Ksh50000 cash prize courtesy of the league sponsor
