NYERI, Kenya, Nov 18 – Mandera County narrowly lost by a solitary goal to Kirinyaga on Saturday in their third Group A game of the play-offs of the Talanta Hela U19 tournament at the Moi Complex Primary School in Nyeri, but the North Eastern region boys have vowed to give their all to fight for a place in the national finals in Nairobi.
Mandera have six points after wins over Kwale and Nairobi, and need just a point off their last group stage match against Uasin Gishu to make the top two in the group and qualify for the nationals.
Coach Abdi Ali believes they have a good squad and were just unlucky to lose against Kirinyaga, and says they will give a fight to ensure they get the desired result on Monday.
“I feel we were very unlucky but this is part of football. We still have a good chance and we want to fight and give our best to try and either win or draw our last match to qualify,” Abdi said after the match.
He added; “We knew we were going to face a very tough match as we had watched them play. We did everything but couldn’t score but I can’t fault the players for their effort. We played our all and created chances. We didn’t settle in early enough but I can say there is so much positive stuff to pick from.”
Mandera dazzle with intricate passing
Mandera showed a brilliant game, their passing movements wowing the crowd, but they couldn’t find the most important statistic of the game; a goal.
It was Kirinyaga who would get the final third right as Brian Murimi scored with a sublime finish in the first half, controlling the ball inside the box before firing into the bottom left.
Mandera gave in a good account and their 15-year old forward Abdi Kadir was a constant threat and twice came close, but couldn’t get the ball into the net.
At the same time, Nairobi will not compete in the nationals after they were eliminated following their third defeat of the tournament, going down 3-0 to Uasin Gishu, who have now moved to six points, same as Mandera.
Meanwhile in Group B, the fight is on for the remaining single slot after Homabay assured themselves of a top spot. Nakuru have revived their hopes for a place in the last four after beating 10-man Embu County 3-0.
Elisha Nalianya’s second minute penalty gave the boys from Central Rift an early lead. They were handed a numerical advantage seven minutes into the second half when Dennis Murimi was sent off for a reckless challenge.
They immediately made the numbers count when Judson Austin scored the second before Alexander Idambo put the icing on the cake with the third goal quarter of an hour to the end.
Nyandarua too hot for Mombasa in girls’ category
In the girls’ category, Nyandarua County picked their second consecutive victory after edging out Mombasa 4-0. Sandra Jeptum’s double in the sixth and 18th minutes as well as another brace from Jecinta Arunye in the 26th and 60th minutes were enough for Nyandarua to edge closer to the nationals.
“It was a really good performance from the girls. We had a small challenge when we had to change the team due to some tournament rules but I want to thank those who came in because they didn’t put a foot wrong. Now we are focusing on the third match and hopefully we get a win to send us to the semis,” said Nyandarua coach Emman Gullit.
Mombasa have now been eliminated from contention as they lost their third match, having previously been beaten 5-0 by Homabay and 2-0 by Machakos.
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