Gor Mahia’s exploits in this year’s Confederations Cup tournament have got fans once again talking and dreaming about continental success.
Gor qualified for the group state of the continental showpiece after seeing off Supersport United of South Africa on an away goal rule.
There have however drawn their first two matches of the group, a 1-1 away match against Rayon Sport and a 0-0 draw against USM Algier of Algeria in Nairobi last week.
Many fans have been taken back to when Gor won their only continental title, lifting the Mandela Cup in 1987 in what was their best performance.
The team will be remembered as it still remains the only team from East Africa to win the title, and will forever remain in the history books.
However, with their spectacular win, there are untold stories about the victory. One of them is that the plan carrying Gor crash-landed in Togo when they were to play Dragons L’Oueme.
The rainy weather conditions in West Africa are said to have been at their worst, and the foggy day affected the pilot’s vision and had to circumnavigating the airport five times.
“The plane was running low on fuel and the pilot had to act fast. By the time he realised he had overshot the runway it was too late. Fortunately, there was a lot of mud that slowed down the plane and it eventually stopped,” recalls legendary Gor Mahia defender Tobias Ocholla, when he spoke to the Standard.
The team used the same plane to Benin, after convincing the players that the plane had been serviced well. Peter Dawo gave K’ogalo the win after they saw they were almost losing, scoring from a throw-in to help the team qualify.
They would eventually win the title on away rule against Esperance of Tunisia, after drawing 2-2 away and 1-1 in Nairobi.