Football: Kenya beat Seychelles in international friendly |31 March 2015
A day after arriving here for an international friendly, the Kenyan national team beat the Seychelles side 2-0 at Stad Linite on Sunday afternoon.
Present for this match was community development and sports principal secretary Denis Rose, National Sports Council chief executive Giovanna Rousseau, the Kenyan league and competitions chairperson Doris Petra and Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) chairman Elvis Chetty who was presented to the players before this encounter which had not drawn a large crowd.
The Harambee Stars broke the deadlock as early as the fourth minute from a deep cross by Danson Kago which Collius Schirachi headed past goalkeeper Vincent Euphrasie for a 1-0 lead which delighted the small but vocal Kenyan supporters in the crowd.
In the 13th minute, Seychelles were awarded a free kick by referee Alistair Barra after Kenyan captain Robinson Njoroge pushed striker Renick Esther on the edge of the penalty area. Achille Henriette curled in a beauty which produced a great save by Kenyan goalkeeper Ian Otieno to push the ball into corner.
In the 22nd minute, Seychelles rode their luck after goalkeeper Euphrasie dropped Shirachi’s cross but David Kingatua failed to punish him as he shot the loose ball wide.
Three minutes later, Euphrasie did well to push David Gateri’s free kick onto the crossbar before the danger was cleared.
Seychelles missed a decent chance to level the score when Yannick Manou headed wide Henriette’s corner.
In the 41st minute, Kenyan Gateri let fly a cracking free kick which crashed against the crossbar.
Two minutes later, Seychelles captain Ronny Hoareau and goalkeeper Euphrasie got into a mix-up with their clearance and Vincent Odongo capitalised on the error to shoot into the net to make it 2-0.
Renick Esther should have reduced the arrears in added time when he pounced on a mistake by Vincent Omumbo but he fired a gilt-edge opportunity wide.
The Seychelles team brought on two target strikers in the shape of Carl Hall and Ryan Antat for Renick Esther and Gervais Waye-Hive early in the second period as they tried to get back in the match.
On the hour mark, Henriette threaded a pass to Hall who raced clear but failed to hit the target.
Nine minutes later, Hall returned the favour to Henriette but he blasted his shot over the crossbar.
In the 78th minute, Kenya put in a string of intricate passing but substitute Timothy Otieno shot across goal. The Kenyans had total control of the match but Ryan Antat could have scored a consolation goal in the dying minutes as he latched onto a through pass but he rifled straight at goalkeeper Otieno as the Kenyans ran out comfortable winners.
Kenya’s coach, Scot Robert Williamson, was happy with his team’s performance and felt they were always in control of this match.
“We did not know what to expect from this Seychelles team but we scored at the right time in this encounter and therefore I’m happy with our performance as we showed a lot of composure and was always in control as well as keeping a clean sheet,” coach Williamson told Sports Nation.
The win was in fact the first for Williamson since taking over from fired Adel Amrouche.
Before the match against Seychelles, the former Ugandan Cranes tactician has overseen a number of friendly matches – watching his side fall 0-1 to Egypt and 0-3 to Morocco and was also in charge when the Under-23 went out of the All-African Games qualifiers to the Pharaohs of Egypt.
As for Seychelles head coach Ulric Mathiot, he felt his team did not play too badly but conceded sloppy goals which made things difficult for themselves.
“We are trying to build a squad and such games are quite useful to help us get our balance. We have a good platform but today we committed some basic errors which cost us dearly against a good team,” explained coach Mathiot to Sports Nation.
R. J-L