Football: 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifier -Seychelles suffer at the hands of Kenya |14 November 2011

Our boys already needed a miracle in their meeting on Friday at Stad Linite after only four days preparation and more worrying a long and hard season which had surely taken its toll on the players, especially the bulk of them coming from St Michel, who had had to play at least two matches per week after the Indian Ocean Island Games without any rest.

Even coach Ralph Jean-Louis had been unable to meet them since their gold medal exploit in August. They were also handicapped with the absence of Karl Hall who is overseas, Wilnes Brutus who was unable to secure his release form work and Alpha Baldé who had opted out.

Nonetheless, the Seychelles team made a bright start in a half-full stadium despite the Seychelles Football Federation allowing free entrance for school children.

In the opening five minutes, our boys had two decent chances which fell to Kevin Betsy but he failed to hit the target on both occasions.

The Kenyans tried to pass the ball around to catch our defence napping and they showed the danger they posed to our team when captain and Auxerre’s striker Dennis Oliech headed home Ochieng Pascal’s cross but it was ruled offside by the Ugandan officials.

Seychelles were deploying a strict offside trap which worked quite well as they tried to hit the Kenyans with long balls to Betsy and Achille Henriette who should have done better with a superb pass from Jonathan Bibi midway in this half, but his control let him down.

The Ugandan official should have penalised the Kenyans on the half-hour mark as Henriette and Alex Nibourette combined to release Betsy but he was held back by a defender and the officials turned a blind eye.

The Ugandan officials were wrong in the 40th minute to award the Kenyans a free-kick near the corner flag after Alex Nibourette had clearly tackled Stephan Waruru and it should have been a throw-in, but assistant referee Mark Sonko got it all wrong when he flagged for a foul and his compatriot referee Denis Batte awarded a free-kick despite the Seychelles team’s protest. This controversial decision affected our players’ concentration and when Titus Mulam lofted the free-kick Ochieng Pascal headed downwards and into the net for a 1-0 lead which the small but vocal Kenyan supporters celebrated in the grand stand.

Seychelles had to be more offensive in the second period as they upped the tempo but this left space in their defence. Betsy curled a brilliant free-kick which flew agonisingly wide in the 48th minute after he was brought down on the edge of the penalty area as he carried the fight to the Kenyans.

However, Oliech continued to be a thorn in the Seychelles defence and in the 52nd minute, he left both Jones Joubert and Nigel Freminot in his wake but shot weakly at goalkeeper Nelson Sopha.

Two minutes later, Sopha did well to block Mohammed Jamal’s shot after Bob Mugalia had pounced on a defensive error to centre to his colleague.

The match was played at a faster pace in this second period and in the 67th minute Betsy and Henriette linked up before the former put in a brilliant cross which captain Don Anacoura met with an equally powerful header but as the crowd waited for the ball to hit the net, the Kenyan goalkeeper, Arnold Otieno, produced a great trip-over save to deny our boys an equaliser.

Seychelles brought on St Louis Suns’ Ryan Antat for his debut in the 74th minute in place of Nelson Laurence as they pushed more players in attack, but this created more space in midfield which the Kenyans exploited a minute later as Oliech burst through to shoot past Sopha to make it 2-0.

Kevin Kimani almost added a third goal in the 80th minute as he sliced open the overworked defence but Sopha blocked his shot which fell to Mugalia whose half-volley hit the foot of the post as Seychelles rode their luck.

A minute later, the irrepressible captain Oliech picked a ball in midfield and his darting run took him past a couple of defenders and he rounded Sopha to drill the ball into an empty net for an emphatic 3-0 score to complete his brace.

Coach Jean-Louis brought on Brian Dorby for a tired-looking Freminot as he tried to stop the rout and limit the danger but in the end the Kenyans ran out comfortable winners.

Kenyan coach Francis Kimanzi told Sports Nation his team had achieved a good result.

“This is a good result for my team though it was not easy at the start as our opponents packed their defence with at times seven players. But the most important thing is the three points and three goals. The contest is almost over and we will play differently at home on Tuesday,” said coach Kimanzi.

As for Seychelles coach Jean-Louis, he accepted that Kenya had been the better team.

“I did not expect such a result but the Kenyans were superior to us in terms of speed and techniques and made the most of the scoring chances that came their way,” said coach Jean-Louis.

He added that in the first half, his team struggled to get the ball to their attackers, while in the second they failed to contain their opponents.

“It will be almost mission impossible to reverse this score but in football anything is possible so we will play for our pride in the away leg,” added coach Jean-Louis.

R. J-L.