Busia County girls’ team head coach Edwin Sakwa has extolled his charges for punching a ticket to the quarter-finals of the inaugural Talanta Hela Under-19 football tournament.
Busia, mostly comprising students of national school games champions, Butere Girls High School, put up a splendid display of technical and tactical finesse to rally from a goal down and thrash Nandi County 3-1 at Kasarani Annex on Tuesday.
Faith Lorna fired Nandi ahead in the 9th minute but two quick-fire goals turned the tide in favour of their resilient opponents.
It wasn’t long before Busia’s incessant inroads into the Nandi’s territory yielded a bumper harvest.
Judith Nandwa opened the floodgates from the penalty spot in the 13th minute before Joan Amimo doubled the advantage with a rasping drive a minute later just before the dust had settled.
Joyangeline Valencia then hammered the final nail into Nandi’s casket after coming on the end of an inviting cutback to poke in Busia’s third in stoppage time.
A visibly elated Busia head gaffer Edwin Sakwa lavished praise on his charges for displaying a great character in the action-packed thriller.
He, however, warned his players not to be carried away by their back-to-back victories. Busia’s campaign got off to a flying start with a resounding 4-0 thrashing of Kakamega at Nyayo Stadium on Sunday.
“We feel excited having already secured a place in the quarterfinals. But we are expecting a tough encounter against Kwale in our final Group A match on Wednesday,” Sakwa remarked.
Sakwa said they will approach their next opponents cautiously, noting that they hold all the teams in the competition in high esteem.
“There is no easy match. We are expecting them to give us a tough contest and so we are taking it seriously. I know that all the teams are a threat, there is no easy team in the tournament.
“The team that prepares well and takes their chances, will carry the day. We hope to be that team. Winning the tournament is our main target,” he added.
Nandi head coach Desource Mudaida admitted the loss left them in a precarious situation but vowed to guide his charges to a win in their crunch tie against Kakamega on Wednesday.
“We are having our last match against Kakamega on Wednesday and we want to concentrate all our efforts to win the game and finish in position two so that we can qualify for the quarterfinals,” Mudaida said.
In other matches of the day, Homabay played out to a one-all draw against West Pokot.
Quinter Adhiambo fired Homabay into the lead in the 12th minute after being teed up by Lewiski Akinyi only for Faith Naliaka to ruin their party after striking the back of the net just nine minutes before the final whistle. Uasin Gishu was held to a barren draw by Machakos.
