A total of 32 players – old and new ones – reported for Kotoko’s training at the Adako Jachie.

At 8am on Friday, which marked the last day of training after the Christmas and New Year break, training session was in full force.

New players, Isaac Amponsah from Nania FC, Bright Ejike from Nigeria, Naeem Abass from Bolga All Stars and Abdul Hamid Fatawu from Vision FC were present.

Emmanuel Gyamfi, who has been under the weather, trained alone. He will not be available for this weekend’s G-8 opener against Eleven Wonders at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Kumasi.

As other players came together to warm up with the ball, returnee, Jordan Opoku had his individual runs across the field to get his stamina back before the start of training.

The team didn’t waste as time. They changed into their training kits. They started with individual shake-ups before Head Coach, Steven Polack officially led for the day’s work.

Coach Polack formed two parallel lines with the players having balls in between them.

The idea, from my observation, was to allow the players pass the ball to each other, exchanging positions to test their stamina and passing accuracy.

It was brilliant.

Assistant Coach, Akakpo Patron and Team Manager, Godwin Ablordey took over subsequently; working with cones to drill the players on their pace and speed.

Coach Polack prepared the field for tactical work.

The team was then divided into two – a side each at the half of the field with each side in yellow and green bibs for easy identification. They worked on goal scoring.

From their bibs, one could predict the likely starters for Sunday’s Kotoko-Eleven Wonders G-8 match. Amos Frimpong, Wahab Adams, Nafiu Awudu, Eric Donkor, Jackson Owusu, Seth Opare, Sylla Mohammed, Obed Owusu, Kwame Boahene and Michael Yeboah wore yellow bibs.

They are likely to start on Sunday.

With goal scoring being the major problem for Kotoko last season, Coach Polack involved all the players in his session on creating chances and scoring. Every single player had a bite of the cake.

The tactical work continued, this time using the full park. The movements started with the goalkeeper who would pass the ball to the central defensive pair who would in turn locate their midfielders to utilise wingers to find the attackers to finish off.

This routine was done repeatedly. Afterwards, Coach Polack had lengthy pep talk with the entire technical team and players to signify the end of the session which lasted two hours.