There is a popular tenet that strikers win you matches but defenders win you trophies.

This is exactly what Tusker FC needed to turn around a season that seemingly had nothing to offer after a number of losses at the beginning, apparently due to burn-out occasioned by their participation in the CAF Champions League.

Interestingly, Tusker, who have landed back-to-back top flight league title, were languishing in relegation zones even after match day 10 of the concluded football season.

They, however, reigned supreme by winning the league and in the process beating Kakamega Homeboyz at the tape.

One of the standout players that arguably saved Tusker mess is goal keeper Patrick Matasi.

A team player who signed a contract while in hospital after a grisly accident that threatened his career, Matasi led from the front in ensuring that Tusker clinches the gong.

Matasi’s input saw him keep eighteen clean sheets in twenty four matches and is credited with finishing the season as the best glove-man despite being overlooked at the beginning of the term due to stiff competition in the team from Harambee Stars custodian Brian Bwire and Rwandese national team goalie Emery Mvuyekure. Matasi was involved in an accident in Lessos in Nandi County on June 1, last year while traveling from his native Kakamega County to Nairobi after a short holiday.

The car rolled three times but all the four adult passengers including him (Matasi), wife Chistabel Chimika and his son survived with serious injuries.

It is an accident that drained the player financially and mentally and hopes of returning to the pitch to play again were almost nil.

Matasi sustained head injuries while his wife suffered a broken leg. He spent close to 15 days in hospital.

“When I was in hospital after the accident I was worried about my son and my wife but I thank God for the gift of life,” Matasi told People Sport.

The former Harambee Stars custodian says the mishap destabilised his career direction, since he would then terminate a lucrative contract with St Georges of Ethiopia since he could not join his teammates in time for the new season as he also needed to be close to his family.

“I had no option but to cut short my services with St Georges. I needed to be at home and I could not leave at the time. For sure it was painful though it was the correct thing to do. At that time I was linked with a move to Simba of Tanzania and TP Mazembe of DRC but with what happened the deals fell through,” he said.

Then as fate would have it, Tusker FC was on a recruitment spree after winning the league in the 2020/21 season and all this time, club officials were monitoring the medical progress of Matasi in hospital. The former AFC Leopards goalkeeper says he signed a two-year contract with Tusker while he was bedridden at the Kakamega General Hospital.

Slow recovery

He then joined his team-mates in September in a pre-season in Mombasa with a continued slow recovery of scars occasioned by the accident, three months after signing the deal.

By the time he was in early training, Tusker had five top goalkeepers including Rwanda’s national team custodian Mvuyekure, teenager Michael Wanjala, experienced Robert Mboya and the team’s then new acquisition from Kariobangi Sharks Brian Okoth Bwire.

The defending champions received a shock and painful 1-0 defeat against a depleted AFC Leopards at the Thika Stadium on match day one, before losing their second match by the same margin to newly-promoted FC Talanta.

Matasi was first introduced to competitive football against Zamalek in the CAF Champions league. During the match, Tusker was walloped 4-0 by Zamalek in Cairo after a 1-0 defeat in Nairobi to exit the competition on a 5-0 aggregate loss. Bwire reclaimed the position again in league matches but he was injured in a CAF Confederation’s Cup play-off against CS Sfaxien of Tunisia.

Matasi would then get a deserved chance to prove his mastery on Jamhuri Day and did well to earn his first clean sheet in his first league start of the season against Sofapaka, a game that ended 0-0 at Ruaraka.

He went ahead to keep seven clean sheets in a row and that was the begining of Tusker’s turn around.