Kenya’s Day Two at the ISF football World School Championships (WSC) saw their strong march towards the knockout stage, with Chinese-Taipei and giants England being the latest to fall victim to the East Africans. After successful second matches, both the boys’ and girls’ teams now lead their respective groups.
In the first match that saw Kenya face Chinese-Taipei for the boys’ Group G qualifying slots, Taipei came to the match desperate for a win and with a point to prove. This followed their 7-2 annihilation in the hands of Uganda’s Amus College. Kenya beat the Asians 4-2 despite a second-half scare that threatened to witness a Taipei comeback.
The first goal for Kenya was from Austine Odongo who is now Kenya’s leading goal scorer and a contender for the tournament’s Golden Boot. Odongo opened the floodgates with his 23rd minute goal to give Kenya the lead. Omuse Baraza Khisa doubled Kenya’s lead six minutes to the halftime break.
Odongo who scored his first goal of the tournament against Benin took his tally to three when, just five minutes into the second half, he scored his third goal of the tournament and Kenya’s third of the match. This 50th minute goal, however, appeared to unlock the Taipei potential.
Back in the first half, just minutes after Omuse’s goal, Chinese-Taipei coach Chao Hsun Yang quickly made a double substitution and the genius of this technical decision was about to be seen.
In the 54th minute one of the substitutes, Je Wei Chiuan, clawed one for Chinese-Taipei to make it 3-1. Still with a two-goal cushion, the Kenyan team was unperturbed. However, the threat of a Taipei comeback got more real when Ching Chun Yeh, the other substitute alongside Chiuan, scored the second for his country.
At this point the game turned into a mental chess-game battle between the two technicians. Kenyan coach Patrick Mayoyo’s second-half substitution Instine Simiyu Wanjala sealed the game for Kenya with his 79th minute goal.
With Group G’s other teams Uganda and Benin having settled for a goal-less draw, Kenya’s win sees her top the group with 6 points ahead of second-placed Uganda who have 4 points. Kenya now faces Uganda in her next match, with concern for coach Mayoyo after his star player and scorer in the Benin match Robert Mutie received his second consecutive yellow card of the tournament.
In the girls Group D which saw Kenya face last year’s quarterfinalists England, the East Africans won 2-1. The dramatic game was however not without tense moments for Kenya.
England scored what might just end up being the tournament’s quickest goal after Lucy Sarah Gilbert shocked Kenya with an abrupt first minute goal. The Europeans maintained the score-line the entire first-hand. In the second half however, Joy Marvelous put one past England goalkeeper Ruby Milly Cook to equal the score-line before scoring her second to complete her brace and hand Kenya victory. Impressively, coach Maurice Okumu completed the entire match without a single substitution.
A damper in the game, however, was Kenya’s star-girl for the day Joy Marvelous receiving a booking from referee Zhigong. This was nevertheless overshadowed by England’s Emily Anna Bloomer who was not only sent away from the game by referee Zhigong, but was also recorded in the match-sheet as a violent player.
With Germany and Ghana having battled to a 1-1 draw, Kenya now leads the group, as they prepare to face their fellow Africans Ghana in the next match.
