Football: 2014 Fifa World Cup preliminaries-Seychelles lose to superior Kenya, faced with mountain to climb |12 November 2011

It was always going to be a tall order for our boys especially after only one week’s preparation for this crucial match and in the end the result showed that our players were not ready for such an encounter.

The Kenyans opened the scoring in the 41st minute in controversial manner when assistant referee Mark Sonko flagged for a foul against Alex Nibourette and his compatriot referee Denis Batte obliged and awarded a free-kick when it should have been a throw-in for the Kenyans. Titus Mulam lofted the free-kick which Ochieng Pascal headed home past goalkeeper Nelson Sopha for a 1-0 half-time lead.

The Seychelles team tried to be more offensive in the second period but conceded a second goal in the 75th minute as Kevin Kimani burst through to score for a 2-0 scoreline.

In the 81st minute Kenya’s captain and star player Denis Oliech, who plays for AJ Auxerre in the French Ligue 1, sliced open the Seychelles’ overworked defence to round Sopha and shoot into an empty net to seal the local team’s fate with a 3-0 defeat.

Seychelles will travel to Kenya tomorrow for the return leg encounter on Tuesday November 15. The winners of the two-legged tie will proceed to the group stage and play in group F alongside Nigeria, Malawi and the winners between Djibouti and Namibia.

We will come back on the match in our next issue.

R. J-L.