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Francis Ouma’s ghost pokes Western Stima

Mathare United’s International striker, Francis Ouma really tore apart Western Stima almost single handedly when he scored a hat-trick in a midweek clash yesterday against the Westerners in Bungoma. The seemingly harmless striker always catches many defences napping and his explicit speed of execution of the last touch in front of goal is terrifyingly clinical. His ruthlessness in scoring has taken him to the top of the KPL goal scorers chart with 14 goals ahead of Chemelil’s Mwangi who who has 13. The 3 nil win almost certainly assures Mathare United of the league title unless something goes terribly wrong. With 4 matches remaining on the card Mathare United lead Sony by 5 points. Mathare needs to win only 2 of their remaining matches and draw the last one to be assured of the league title.

The fast rising striker also hit the back of the net in Conakry, Guinea when Kenya lost 3-2 to Guinea in the last match of the second round of World Cup/African Cup of Nations qualifiers match. Kenya had already garnered enough points to see them through to the last 20 in the qualifiers before playing Guinea.

But Mathare United’s coach Francis Kimanzi only knows too well that early celebrations in football cannot be entertained before the last game. He has professionally maintained his silence in the media over his team’s performances and has let his team’s results do the talking.

Kimanzi, who also took the Kenyan National team Harambee Stars to the last 20 teams for the last group stages of the World Cup and African Nation’s Cup Qualifiers, has remained tight-lipped over his team’s achievements. His direct approach when dealing with his team on and off the pitch has been a major contributor in shaping his team’s discipline and a season capped with a lot of success.

Sher Karuturi deeply misled

Sher Karuturi from Naivasha were hoping to cash in on home advantage and win their league Match last Sunday against Mathare United. But that was never to be as Mathare United beat them in their own backyard by a goal to nil. But the loss did not deter them from still chasing the 3 points off the field.

Informed sources who attended the match alerted the KISE website that Sher officials might have been misled to believe that Mathare United’s player Kennedy Ayong was suspended for that match having collected 3 yellow cards. KPL rules direct that a player who accumulates 3 yellow cards must serve a two match suspension. So Sher went ahead and lodged an official complaint with KPL demanding to be awarded the 3 points from Mathare for fielding an ineligible player. Little did they know that Ayong had already served his suspension and actually had come back and only acquired one more yellow card on resuming play.  Out of the window the points Sher wanted from Mathare went!

Speculation has been rife in the past 3 weeks among KPL Clubs that some teams have not observed the rule  in their past matches and KPL is prepared to go down to the root of the matter and punish the Clubs which flouted this rule. Most of the teams from the 8th position downwards are only separated by a difference of very few points and any points deductions at this stage would be disastrous. As relegation threats bite and the title race going to the wire, all the Clubs are anxious to find out if they are on the punishment roster. About a week ago, Red Berets tasted the wrath of the Independent Disciplinary and Appeals Committee (whose decisions are final) when they were deducted  the 3 points they had gotten against Gor Mahia. Gor appealed when they found out that a Red Berets player who had accumulated 3 yellow cards had actually been fielded in that match. This decision pushed Red Berets near the doors of relegation and any subsequent losses might result to this door being opened. The following standings show the matches played up to date, and including that IDAC decision against Red Berets. The table could change if KPL punishes more clubs for gross violation of its rules. Before the disciplinarian cracks the whip this is how things look like with only 4 rounds of matches remaining.

UPDATED KENYAN PREMIER LEAGUE STANDINGS 

	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Mathare United	26	16	7	3	42	20	22	55
2	Sony Sugar	26	14	8	4	24	11	13	50
3	Agro-Chemicals	26	12	7	7	26	20	6	43
4	Thika United	26	11	6	9	21	18	3	39
5	World Hope	26	11	5	10	22	25	-3	38
6	Ulinzi Stars	26	10	7	9	28	25	3	37
7	Sher Karuturi	26	8	12	6	16	15	1	36
8	Tusker	26	8	10	8	31	30	1	34
9	Gor Mahia	26	9	7	10	15	18	-3	34
10	Chemelil Sugar	26	8	9	9	24	21	3	33
11	KCB	26	7	10	9	19	23	-4	31
12	Bandari	26	9	4	13	26	32	-6	31
13	Mahakama	26	7	6	13	23	31	-8	27
14	Western Stima	26	7	6	13	27	36	-9	27
15	Red Berets	26	6	8	12	20	27	-7	26
16	Mathare Youth	26	6	6	14	21	33	-12	24

Robert Mambo’s fighting spirit pays off

Swedish League:

Robert Mambo scored one of the most memorable goals of his career in Swedish top league to help his team, GIF Sundsvall, ease relegation fears. Sundsvall won the match 2-1 against Norrkopping.  The game was headed for a 1-1 draw but with 3 minutes to go, Robert Mambo, who is also the captain of the Kenyan National team found the back of the net to send Sundsvall home fans celebrating the whole evening.

Mambo had an outstanding game last night and the goal came as a very good reward for his never-say-die attitude. The goal was the fifth that Robert has scored for the team this season.

KISE’s special Sports correspondent had a long telephone interview with Mambo a day before the match where the Kenyan Captain expressed confidence that they would win the match and still play in the top league next season despite having  a bad run this year. Mambo admits that things have not worked for them this year but they look forward to a more promising future.

“The most important thing for the team for now is to win our remaining matches and avoid relegation. We have a team that has the ability to post good results and are working very hard”, said Mambo.

Sundsvall meets Orebro next Sunday in a match Sundsvall must win. Orebro was Mambo’s former team. Sundsvall will try to exploit its home advantage when they meet Orebro.

Mathare United’s steady march to league title continues

Saturday KPL Match Reports by KISE Correspondent:

Mathare United snatched a very important away win when they beat Sher Karuturi away by a solitary goal. The all-important goal was scored by Chrispine Oduor in the first half. The win might prove so crucial at these finals stages of the Kenyan Premier League, with only 4 rounds of matches to go. Kimanzi’s lads went back to the top of the KPL league. And who said Mathare could not stop celebrating when news reached them in the bus on their way back to Nairobi that their closest title challengers, Sony Sugar from Awendo had fallen by 4-0 away to Bandari in Mombasa. Bandari, fighting so hard not to fall into the relegation zone thoroughly outplayed Sony and deservedly got the much needed victory.

Elsewhere in Nairobi, Tusker got 3 points which they so badly needed when they beat visiting Red Berets 3-1. The defeat leaves Red Berets in a bad relegation-threatening spot. They are second from bottom. Newly installed Tusker Coach, James Nandwa who is also the assistant coach of the Kenyan National team was so upbeat after the match, expressing optimism that the team will win all its remaining 4 matches and at least end in a respectable position. Nandwa got a rude welcome during his first match in charge of Tusker when his team lost 2-0 against Agro Chemicals in Nairobi 3 weeks ago.

Mathare Youth’s woes continued despite giving their Coach Gabriel Njoroge leave of absence and assigning assistant Coach David Ouma the duty to take charge of the team in the remaining assignments. They lost 3-1 away to fast rising Ulinzi FC. Mathare Youth are still stuck at the bottom of the table and really need to sort themselves out by winning their remaining matches to stand a chance of getting  a place in the KPL league next season.

KCB lost 2-1 at home to Agro-Chemicals. Coach Yusuf Chippo’s lads woke up from their deep slumber in the final quarter of the match to salvage a goal but this did not help them as Agro decided to fall back deep into their own half and kill away the clock. The match was played at the Kasarani stadium.

Today Sunday at the Hope Center, World Hope beat visiting Chemelil Sugar 2-1.

World Cup draws are out!

The much awaited draws for the third and final rounds of the World Cup Qualifiers for African group teams are finally out. Last Wednesday FIFA made the draws in Zurich for the last 20 teams. There are 5 groups, each having 4 teams. The winner of each group joins South Africa in the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa and the African Cup of Nations in Angola. This will see 6 teams from African play in the world Cup. This will be the highest number of teams ever to represent the African Continent in the World Cup. South Africa automatically qualifies because they are hosting the tournament. The second and the third team in each group only qualify for the African Cup of Nations.

Cameroun, Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Ghana were each seeded after topping their second round groups. The final draws are as follows:

Group A Consists of Cameroun, Togo, Morocco and Gabon

Group B Comprises Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia and Mozambique

Group C includes Egypt, Rwanda, Algeria and Zambia

Group D is made of Ghana, Benin, Mali and Sudan.

Group E  has Ivory Coast, Malawi, Burkina Fasso and Guinea

Kenya starts its World Cup Campaign at home against Tunisia on the weekend of the 28th-29th of March 2009 while Mozambique hosts Nigeria .

The Harambee Stars then go away to Nigeria on the weekend of the 6th-7th of June while Tunisia plays hosts to Mozambique.

The weekend of the 20th-21st June will see Kenya take on Mozambique in Nairobi while Tunisia welcomes Nigeria.

The 5th-6th of September will see Nigeria welcome Tunisia while Mozambique hosts Kenya.

The 10th-11 of October will pit Nigeria against Mozambique in Nigeria while Kenya travels to Tunisia.

The 14th-15th of November will be the last weekend of the qualifiers when Kenya is expected to play host to Nigeria in Nairobi while Mozambique will be inviting Tunisia in Maputo.

Kimanzi slams foreign coaches

Kenya coach Francis Kimanzi believes that his current success adds weight to the argument that foreign coaches do not help African football.

The Harambee Stars are top of Group 2 in the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, and are very likely to progress to the second group phase.

“The problem with African football federations is that they have a vision to bring someone from abroad, but they need an overall vision for the team,” Kimanzi told BBC Sport.

“Kenya are succeeding, and our team is dominated by local players. Look at Angola, their coach just resigned, but he took them to the World Cup.”

“Nigeria have won five games and conceded no goals with a local coach.

“And look at Egypt, they won the Nations Cup with a local coach and local players – it’s the way forward.”

Oliveira Goncalves resigned as Angola coach, but he took the team to the 2006 World Cup finals.

Kimanzi feels that the mindset of two of Kenya’s chief rivals is not helping them to achieve.

“Tanzania believe that they need someone from abroad to succeed, but in the past five years they’ve seen nothing – they’re already out of the qualifiers, it’s unbelievable,” he said.

“Uganda have also been working with foreign coaches, but they don’t get anywhere.”

However, there is a likelihood that Kenya will end up with a foreign coach, as Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said that a German coach might be hired.

Kimanzi says he is prepared for the eventuality.

“I’m still very young, if Kenya wants to hire a foreign coach tomorrow, let them do that, I’d want to compare notes with someone who comes in,” he said.