Addis Ababa

Dossena, who has coached Ghana and served as assistant to Cesare Maldini during Paraguay’s 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign, signed the agreement with club president Abennet Gebremeskel on Saturday, team manager Daniel Kassa told AFP.

Saint George, the country’s oldest and most successful football club, are reigning champions of Ethiopia’s 18-team Premier League and have been crowned champions seven times this decade.

The 52-year-old Dossena will be tasked with turning around the team’s fortunes at continental level, where they have failed to sparkle despite their dominance in the domestic league.

Dossena is Saint George’s fourth foreign coach in recent years, a period during which the club have invested heavily on players and infrastructure, including a new stadium earlier this year.

A veteran of spells with Sampdoria, Udinese and Bologna in Italy’s Serie A, Dossena won 38 caps for Italy, and was a member of the 1982 FIFA World Cup winning squad.

Source: FIFA.com & Wikipedia.org

Photos: More photos are available at Saint George FC’s website:

There are many other ways of disciplining our young and promising players. I am not saying no fault is committed on that fateful day. Yes, the players were at fault even though the referee and the federation have contributed to the disaster. Let us see the genesis of the problem. A goal was scored. A St George player said to the referee it was off-side. The player red carded. Another player said to the referee, can’t we complain? Why is red-carded? The second red card given so on and so forth. 

According to my sources, this same referee had red carded three St George players on another game earlier on. On another note, there are disciplinary issues pending with the federation i.e, not yet decided upon for a long time. This time it was St George on target and it took them just three or four days to arrive at their harsh and irrational conclusion. If asked why the rush, they have no answer. The prescribed penalty under the law is from 6 months up to 2 years. Why the maximum? They have no answer again. Moreover they didn’t bother themselves to talk to the players. I heard Saladin has a serious accusation against the referee. They denied him his right to be heard before being penalized. Maybe their rule says they can decide only on the report of the referee and the commissioner. 

The commissioner can’t hear what the discussion was about between the referee and the players. The referee can easily make up a story and fabricate false accusation. His report needs to be balanced. In view of this, talking to the players could have straightened the record. The Bible reads, “any story sounds true until you hear the other side of the story which straightens the record”. Anyways, the club and the players have appealed against the harsh decision which actually was not meant to educate or reform the players but to take vengeance both against the club and the players. I really don’t know why they hate the club to this extent. I heard from different sources the club had long ago submitted its complaint against referee bamlak. If that is true, the federation shouldn’t have assigned that referee on that day. 

The federation had to investigate St George’s complaint before assigning the referee. The club, St George, is a good one, it contributes a lot to soccer development and improvement, it helps clubs with financial problem. It helps individuals with severe injury. It sends players of other clubs for treatment abroad. This club does a lot of good things to help the nation, other clubs and individual players. The club spends several hundreds thousands dollars for treatment of players. Ali of Buna could be treated by the help of this club. Sheik Dr Mohamod Al Amuudin helped all those players on behalf of St George. It is because St George is there this gentleman could help many players. Something is wrong somewhere. We need to call a conference with the federation and other clubs to discuss why they are so much against this club. 

LONG LIVE ST GEORGE!
Guangul Teshager

The loss however, should not diminish the Saints’ gallant effort to become the first Ethiopian side to reach the final of the tournament. The team was awarded $20,000 for finishing as runner-up.

Not too many people expected the team to go this far, so we say Congratulation St. George!

Here is the summary of St. George’s performance in the 2009/10 CECAFA Club Championship:

Group B Matches:

St. George 2 Rayon Sports 2

Salahadin Said (7’ & 62’)

St. George 5 Mafunzo Zanzibar 0

Salahadin Said, Adane Girma (2), Mohammed Nasser & Elias Mamo

Quarter-Final:

St. George 5 Telekom Djibouti 0

Adane Girma (5’), own goal, Salahadin Said (76’ & 85’) and Mesfin Kidane

Semi-Final:

St. George 3 Atraco 1

Adane Girma (2) and Salahadin Said

Final:

St. George 0 APR Rwanda 2

St. George’s Top Scorers:

Salahadin Said – 6 goals

Adane Girma – 5 goals

St. George returning to big time football following a two-year Fifa ban of their country scored two penalties through Salahadin Said in the seventh and 62^nd minutes. Rayon was buoyed by goals from Sina Jerome and Franck Makengo in the 22^nd and 47^th minutes respectively.

St. George’s Jean Claude Amougo was the Man of the Match. Their next match will be on Thursday against Mafunzo FC of Zanzibar

The tournament kicked off on Saturday when Rwanda’s league champion APR opened their campaign with a hard earned 2-1 win against Burundian champions Vital’O at Amahoro stadium here on Saturday.

Group A: APR (Rwanda), TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Vital’O (Burundi) and Telkom (Djibouti)

Group B*: Rayon Club (Rwanda), St. George FC (Ethiopia) and Mafunzo (Zanzibar).

Group C: Atraco (Rwanda), Simba (Tanzania), URA (Uganda) and SOFAPAKA (Kenya)

*Heartland of Nigeria, who were expected to take part as an invitee team, withdrew from the competition at the last minute to concentrate on their domestic league.

The top 3 teams from Group A & C plus the top two from Group B will qualify for th Quarter-Finals.

 The winner will pocket $30,000 while first and second runners-up will walk away with $20,000 and $10,000 respectively.

One form of consolation for the team is the performance of their leading striker, Temesgen Tekle, who is leading the EPL’s chart with 19 goals in 30 matches.  The young man has a good chance to be crowned Top Goal Scorer of the Year if he maintains his leadership and avoids being overtaken by his nearest rivals – Tafesse Tesfaye of Ethiopian Coffee(16 goals) and Sifedin Hulder of Defence Force(15 goals) – over the next 4 weeks.

Ethiopian Coffee and Adama City have played 29 matches, W13, D8 and L8 for a total of 47 points, but the former has a better goal difference (+18 vs +7).

In other matches, St. George defeated EEPCO 3-0, while Dedebit FC and Defence Forces played a to a 2-2 draw.

The Saints, who despite having a game in hand, built a 15-points lead over Dedebit FC, will surely be crowned champions of the 2009/10 season, and Meta Abo Brewery (20 pts) will definitely be relegated. What remains unclear is who among the bottom 5 teams, namely Dire Dawa City, EEPCO, Trans Ethiopia, South Police & Metehara Sugar (they’re separated by just 4 pts), will join them to the lower division.

Here are the league results & schedule based on the information obtained from St. George website: 

Today:

Awassa City 0 Sebeta City 0

Trans Ethiopia 0 Metehara Sugar 0

Harar Beer 0 Dire Dawa City 1

South Police 2 Mugher Cement 1

Sidama Coffee 2 Banks SC 1

Meta Abo Brewery 2 Insurance 1 

EEPCO 0 St.George FC 3

Dedebit FC 2 Defense Forces 2

Tomorrow’s schedule:

Trans Ethiopia vs Banks SC

Addis Ababa

With seven weeks remaining in the current league competition and with one game in hand, St. George (62 pts) has extended its lead over Dedebit FC to 11 points.  

The 27^th Week of the EPL started yesterday with lowly EEPCo defeating Insurance 1-0 here, Adama City drawing 1-1 with Trans Ethiopia at home and Awassa City beating Mugher Cement 2-0 in Hawassa.  

In the first match of today’s Addis Ababa double header, Banks SC and Defense Forces drew 1-1, so did Dire Dawa City and Sebeta City in Dire Dawa; last-place Meta Abo Brewery registered its fourth victory of the season with a 1-0 win over South Police, and the Harar City vs Sidama Coffee match was postponed.

EPL Table after Week 26

The Saints, who have one match in hand, lead the EPL with 59 points while Ethiopian Coffee is in fourth place, 18 points behind. But despite the large points’ disparity, it is never a dull moment when the two teams meet, and soccer fans here in the capital are looking forward to see an entertaining match, and the federation hopes to see a full house. 

A loss could jeopardize Coffee’s league standing as Mugher Cement, Harar Beer and Defense Forces sit right behind their tail with 39 points each. 

St. George has won 8 EPL titles since 1998, when the reformatted championship* was launched in 1997/8. Ethiopian Coffee is still looking for its first title. 

Based on the information* that we were able to collect, the two teams have met 18 times, with the Saints winning 10 wins,  Ethiopian Coffee registered 4 victories and there were 4 draws.  The Saints have scored 27 goals compared to 14 for Ethiopian Coffee.  The largest win for the Saints was a 4-1 victory in 1998/9; the two teams drew scoreless 3 times and in the 2000/01 season, Eth. Coffee beat the Saints twice (1-0).

*The list is not complete as we are missing results from the 2005/6, 2006/7 & 2007/8 seasons.  

1997/8 Season

St. George was in the second division then 

1998/9 Season:

St George          4-1 Coffee

St George          2-0 Coffee 

1999/00

Coffee             0-2 St George

St George       2-0 Coffee 

2000/01

St George       0-1 Coffee

Coffee             1-0 St George 

2001/02

Eth. Coffee         0-0 St. George

St. George          2-1 Eth. Coffee 

2002/03

Eth. Coffee     0-0 St George    

St George       2-1 Eth. Coffee  

2003/04

Eth. Coffee    1-0 St. George           

St. George     2-2 Eth. Coffee 

2004/05

Eth. Coffee        0-2 St. George

St. George         4-3 Eth. Coffee 

2005/06

St. George         vs  Eth. Coffee    (Match abandoned at 0-0 in 36′ due to crowd trouble)

St. George vs Coffee (2^nd round result Not Available)  

2006/07

St. George         3-1 Eth. Coffee

Return leg result not available 

2007/08

Not Available 

2008/09

Ethiopian Coffee 0-1 Saint George         

Saint George     1-2 Ethiopian Coffee 

2009/10

Dec 27

Saint George     0-0 Ethiopian Coffee

Banks SC and EEPCO played earlier in the day but we have not yet received the score.

The Ethiopian Premier League will continue tomorrow with the following matches:  

Addis Ababa: Insurance vs Metehara Sugar at 3pm & Eth.Coffee vs Dedebit at 5 pm 

Adama: Adama City vs Dire Dawa City at 3pm 

Ambo: Mugher Cement vs Sebeta City at 3pm 

Sebeta: Meta Abo Brewery vs Harar Beer at 3pm 

Awassa: South Police vs Defence at 3pm 

Yergalem: Sidama Coffee vs Awassa City at 3pm

Apart from drawing 0-0 with mighty St. George, Dedebit defeated some of the country’s reputable and experienced sides like Ethiopian Coffee (1-0), Ethiopian Banks SC (1-0), Ethiopian Insurance (2-1), EEPCo (2-0) and Adama City (1-0 away). Furthermore, the team remained undefeated until Week 15 when it lost 1-0 to Mugher Cement in Ambo. 

However, Dedebit is facing mounting obstacles in the second round as the team won 2, drew 3 times and lost 3 of its matches (9 pts total), compared to 6 wins and 2 draws (20 pts) during the first round.

The team lost three valuable points at home when it was defeated 2-1 by Awassa City and drew 1-1 with Harar City, compared to a 0-0 tie with Awassa and 3-0 victory over Harar away during the first round. 

Dedebit scored 11 goals during the first 8 matches of both rounds but conceded 10 more goals during the second. Such slip up has cost the team dearly as it now trails defending champions St. George by 8pts with the latter having one more game in hand. 

Dedebit will face a much improved Ethiopian Coffee this Saturday. 

Meanwhile Week 26 of the EPL will continue this week with the following matches: 

Saturday, April 17:

Addis Ababa

Banks SC vs EEPCo at 3pm

St. George vs Trans Ethiopia at 5 pm 

Sunday, April 18:

Addis Ababa

Insurance vs Metehara Sugar at 3pm

Eth.Coffee vs Dedebit at 5 pm 

Adama:

Adama City vs Dire Dawa City at 3pm 

Ambo:

Mugher Cement vs Sebeta City at 3pm 

Sebeta:

Meta Abo Brewery vs Harar Beer at 3pm 

Awassa:

South Police vs Defence at 3pm 

Yergalem:

Sidama Coffee vs Awassa City at 3pm