Hearts of Oak, learn from Real Madrid’s Laliga season, and just play your best football on the pitch, and maybe just maybe, you might win the league.
Its not often one gets to see similarities between Ghanaian league clubs and that of the Spanish Laliga, but I see one.
I see similarities between the 19/20 Ghana Premier League table toppers by goal difference, Accra Hearts of Oak, and Real Madrid.
The similarity is not in the style of play, nor the injury roster.
The similarity is in the story of a team with arguably the biggest fan base, wanting to win the league, and the feeling of having everybody else against that goal.
Hearts of Oak have had their well deserved wins marred by one-off referee errors.
The continental club masters under new gaffer Samuel Boadu, have looked a sharp contrast to the side under former boss, Kosta Papic.
However like Real Madrid, they will have to be even better than they are now if they stand a chance of winning the league.
Real Madrid’s football was not good enough to overcome the obstacles outside the field of play.
There are the many refereeing decisions that were blatantly against Real Madrid.
The games against Alaves, Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid and others come to mind.
Then there are the bookings that seemed too extreme on Real Madrid players.
Then there were the penalty calls against the 18/19 Laliga Champions.
Real Madrid’s mistake was to think they could win these battle outside the pitch, they didn’t.
Appeals to overturn cards were squashed, as were those to get some resemblance of fair refereeing.
Back to Hearts
In the Mantse derby against city rivals Great Olympics, a clean Hearts of of goal, was ruled out.
Isaac Mensah in the 27th minute strike needed a goal line technology to rightly given, so lets excuse that.
Hearts of Oak lost out on 2 points because of that decision.
Now they sit on 50 points, just as title contenders, Kumasi Asante Kotoko.
Hearts have turned to fighting outside the pitch to get all three points of that game.
They claim Great Olympics fielded an ineligible player in the Accra derby.
Hearts of Oak filed the petition under the suspicion that the player in question – Rhule, may not have the required certification for a change in name.
Joshua Kwame Rhule was christened, Mervyn Koomson, but has undergone a change of name on three different occasions.
Rhule played for Santos in the National First Division during the 2016/17 season, under the name Koomson Biney.
He featured in seven games, for Santos failing to score or register any assist.
Maybe Hearts are win the petition and get their 3 points, maybe they don’t.
Either way, they would have to focus on the things they do on the pitch more than anything else.
That is their best chance of winning the 2020 Ghana Premier League.
As Diego Simeone said to Real Madrid, when you play your best football, there is no talk about VAR.
So Hearts, if you want to win the league again after 12 years, just play the football.