Football: International friendly |01 April 2015

Kenya edge 10-man Seychelles under-20 selection

The Kenyan national team won their second consecutive match in two days as they edged the Seychelles Under-20 selection 2-1 at Stad Linite on Monday afternoon in a highly competitive encounter.

The Kenyans were here on a two-match friendly tour and on Monday faced our Under-20 selection after beating our senior side 2-0 on Sunday.

The Under-20 selection should have broken the deadlock as early as the 8th minute from Kieren Sinon’s cross which dropped to Randolph Elizabeth who had sneaked in to elude the offside trap but the St John Bosco striker tried to be too fancy with his footwork and therefore fluffed a clear chance with only goalkeeper Robert Mboya to beat.

The Kenyans responded in the 16th minute from Enock Agwanda’s through ball to Harrison Mwanduga but he shot wide in a good scoring position.

In the 26th minute, Graham Cafrine robbed Andrew Murunga of the ball to pick out his clubmate Elizabeth with a deep cross and the reigning young player of the year headed goalwards but Mboya did well to turn the ball into corner.

Our boys then conceded in the 33rd minute as goalkeeper Raphael Moustache rushed out to stop Murunga but the ball fell to Agwanda who shot at goal and Moustache spilled the shot and there was Amos Asembeka to bury the loose ball into the net to make it 1-0.

On the stroke of half time, the Seychelles team were reduced to 10 men when captain Ahmed Maurice let his teammates down by handling Murunga’s goalwards header from captain Vincent Odongo’s free kick to give away a penalty and referee Bernard Camille applied the letter of the law and showed The Lions defender a straight red card.

Agwanda was assigned the spot kick but Moustache made a wonderful block to save the blushes of his skipper as he denied the Kenyan a second goal.

The Seychelles team came out in the second half with all guns blazing and got their due reward in the 48th minute when Kenyan defender Bernard Odhiambo brought down Wesley Esther with a crude two-footed tackle which resulted in the official pointing to the penalty spot. Oliver Bonte of Côte d’Or took the spot kick and tucked it into the far corner to level the score at 1-1.

The Seychelles team though were hard done by referee Camille in the 67th minute when he adjudged that Darren Gonzalves had handled Collins Shivachi’s cross as he battled with Timothy Otieno for the ball at the far post and the ball had innocuously ricocheted off him.

It was a really dubious penalty decision which Kenyan captain Odongo took and sent Moustache the wrong way to make it 2-1.

The Seychelles selection almost drew level straight from the kick-off as Elizabeth played a long pass to Cafrine who out-sped the defence but goalkeeper Mboya was alert to the danger as he rushed out to clear the ball.

In the latter stages of this match, both teams kept pushing for goals but the Kenyans just held on to edge our boys who had given their more experienced opponents a stern test but had lost to a highly controversial penalty decision.

Kenya’s coach, Scot Bobby Williamson told Sports Nation that he was impressed with our Under-20 selection and wished them well for the future.

“This is a good group of young players with a bright future as they showed a lot of potential but they still have a long way to go though. On a personal note, I was very frustrated with the local goalkeeper who indulged in time wasting throughout the match,” said coach Williamson as he added that his players were very tired after playing two games on the trot.

As for Seychelles head coach Vivian Bothe, he was very pleased with our local team’s performance despite losing this match.

“It was a very satisfying performance from my players and we had only assembled them in a short time but they gave a good account of themselves though. I’m very disappointed with the second penalty awarded to the Kenyans as the official got this decision wrong,” coach Bothe told Sports Nation.

The Kenyan delegation left the country yesterday afternoon after their visit here.

R. J-L.