Red Bull Academy on Wednesday put up a spirited performance to beat premier club Accra Hearts Of Oak 3-1 in a friendly match played at Sogakope.
The match which started in a whirlwind fashion saw Accra Hearts Of Oak taking the kick off after Referee S.K Abbey Aveshie from Akatsi had signaled the two teams to commence hostilities. The Phobians started strongly and aggressively and endeared themselves in front of the packed crowd.
Red Bull Academy however kept their composure and started making incursions into the half of the visitors. By the eight minute ,Red Bull Academy had discovered their rhythm .With well rehearsed inter positional changes, short crisp passes and piercing shots, one could prognosticate ,The 2000 African champions,2000 Africa Super champions and 2003 African Confederation Cup champions were going to be buried under avalanche of goals.
Miraculously, they survived the attacks and bombardments thanks to the agility of their goalkeeper Collins Addo.
In the 44th minute ,Accra Hearts Of Oak could not hold the the fire and the incessant pressure from Red Bull Academy when they opened the score sheet through Richard Arhin after he had received a brilliant pass from Windsor Zuberu Sulemana.
Back from recess, both team made series of substitutions .Red Bull Academy brought on National U.17 skipper Kwame Frimpong for Edem Towodjoh whiles Felix Adjei was pulled out for Ibrahim Mohammed to take his position.On the part of Accra Hearts Of Oak, Ohene Addo,Edward Kusi and David Annan came on for Nathaniel Copson,Kofi Sarpong and David Nyani respectively.
But the substitutions paid off well for Red Bull Academy as they kept their guest under incessant pressure and scored two more goals through Abdul Razak in the 74th and 83rd minute.
With their pride wounded and humiliation staring them in the face ,Accra Hearts Of Oak fought back and got a late consolation from the boot of Edward Adjaglo in the 89th minute.The shril of the referee's whistle ending the game brought joy on the faces of the vociferous supporters of Red Bull Academy with the phobia supporters wondering if it was Hearts Of Oak they watched.
At the end of the match ,the General Manager of Red Bull Academy Sanzio Bahner said ?? I promised Hearts Of Oak before the game that we will beat them because I did it with King Faisal in 2004 and they never believed because they forgot I Know them inside out . Had I known they say is always at last .I know my boys and I commend them for beating the millennium champions of Africa. Now we have put stop work notice on their rebuilding exercise and they must produce permit?.
The Technical Director Hans Peter Schaller believes the score line should have been bigger.??Though we won I think things could have been different if we had taken our chances.It is just a friendly game but in future we have to work on many things??
The Public Relations Officer of Red bull Academy Cubagee Uriel who was celebrating his birthday also commended his boys for making the day a memorable one.
Red Bull Academy Starting Line up: Dadzie,Logoh,Joshua,Hammond,Eshun,Towodjoh,Ibrahim,Karim,Abass Arhin,Felix. Hearts Starting line up
Addo,Sulley,Sarpong,Imoro,Akrbuto,Ampah,Nyarko,Nathaniel,Ebo,Nyani,Boateng.
