ADDIS ABABA – The Addis side Coffee dropped two points after finishing level away at 1-1 with the home side Sidama Coffee on Sunday in the Ethiopian Premier League football club competition. Despite the drop of two points Coffee are still on top of the league on 19 points, two clear from the second placed Hawassa City. Coffee who lifted the cup once have all the chance to take for the second time this season if they keep this winning spirit until the end.
Coffee returned to winning spirit three weeks ago at the Addis Ababa stadium when they beat Adama City with a close 1-0 margin. On Saturday, the second placed Hawassa City conceded a 1-0 away defeat at the hands of Mekele Saba Inderta side. The defeat helped Coffee to maintain the leadership. Hawassa’s place will put high pressure on the leaders. The third placed Saint George avenged the knock out defeat by Mekelakeya by thrashing them 5-0 on Saturday at the Addis Ababa stadium. That was indeed the day of joy for St. George huge fans.
The stadium was full to capacity simply because most St. George and other football fans marched to the stadium to watch Mekelakeya who knocked out St. George three days earlier with a 1-0 win. Prior to the play few expected that the margin of retaliation would go to this far but the play all through was tilted in favour of the winners. This was not the first time for Mekelakeya to concede five goals. Two weeks ago they were thrashed 5-1 by Adama City. Judging from attendance, St. George earned avery comfortable win with superior display of football.
Their fans jumped in to air with jubilation when the final whistle was heard. Chanting and dancing on the road continued for long. St. George are now third on 15 points. The good part of the Saturday play was it ended in a peaceful way. Same day the Ethiopian Premier League matches were played in other venues. Bahir Dar City beat the lowly Dedebit 2-0. This shows that Bahir Dar continued with their winning spree.
They managed to stand fourth having equal 15 points with St. George. They are separated by the number goals they scored. This is great for their coach Pawlos Getachew, widely known as Mango. Dedebit are the bottom side on three points. They are highly likely to relegate this seasona Bahir Dar City and South Police joined the top flight at the start of this season along with Shire Sihul. Of the three new entry sides, so far Bahir Dar have been faring well. Both South Police and Shire Sihule are languishing at the bottom side of the table.
As the games are at this initial stage, it may be a bit hasty and unfair to conclude that the danger of relegation looming over their heads, but the pattern shows that they are in that quagmire. Adama City beat Dire Dawa City 1-0 while Wolayita Dicha and Wolwalo Adigrat University finished level at 1-1.
The table shows that The new entry South Police are second to the bottom on 5 points while the other new comer Shire Sihul are 14th on 6 points. The trio are in the relegation zone. The defending champions Jima Abajifar are also in a terrible 12th position on 6 points. Clear developments are seen regarding crowd disturbance.
Three weeks ago the play between Hawassa City and St. George was interrupted due to crowd violence in Addis ababa. St. George fans were punished when the game was replayed in a closed stadium the next day. After taking that swift measure the federation, the atmosphere has been changed to the better. Big improvements were also made when the Amhara side Fasil City travelled to Mekele to face the home opponents. This was nearly impossible a year ago. The last two weeks in all venues games began and ended peacefully. This gave relief for the federation.
Herald January 15/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
