Kisumu head coach Andrew Aroko has exuded confidence ahead of their scintillating clash against Homabay in the boys’ finals of the 2023 Talanta Hela Under-19 national football tournament.
Aroko spoke after his charges squeezed out a hard-fought 4-2 win over an obstinate Vihiga county team in a nervy penalty shootout, following a one-all draw at Nyayo stadium on Sunday.
“Homabay are a good team and we respect them a lot. I’ve watched them play before and we somehow have a similar style of play,” Aroko remarked. “I’ll just go back to the drawing board and see how I can come up with a strategy to beat them,” he added.
Aroko said they had sharpened their talons well enough to counter any challenges posed by their opponents in the hotly-contested semifinals.
“I knew that Vihiga is a very strong team who are tactically okay and so I had to change my approach and it worked,” Aroko said.
“Their style of play unsettled us because we are not used to long balls. We had to take time to study them. They tried to play second balls but we successfully managed to cut them off.
“In the second half, we came back with a different strategy. The goalkeeper made a very big mistake. He was overconfident and attempted to waste time when we were only a goal up. One nil is not a comfortable lead.
Vihiga head coach Manoah Otuoma said his charges were simply unfortunate to lose the tie. “In the first half, we would have killed the game completely and they could not have come back. However, a few missed chances cost us the game,” Otuoma stated.
“All in all we played well and I think our boys have shown some character because this is the first time in the tournament we managed to rally from a goal down,” he added.
“We’ll use the lessons we have learned in our next match. We have missed position and we want to console ourselves by finishing third.”
After a flurry of missed opportunities by both sides, Austine Otieno broke the deadlock to fire Kisumu ahead in the 51st minute of the action-packed encounter.
A juvenile howler in the six-yard area by Kisumu custodian Stephen Ouma, however, gifted Vihiga a penalty nine minutes later, with Austine Odongo gladly stepping up to bury the ball into the net and taking his goal tally to five thus far.
The tide of the game permanently changed in favor of Kisumu after Alex Aviasa was sent for an early shower having collected the second yellow card following an infringement on Otunga Masaba.
In the nervy penalty shootout, Tyson Onyango, Otunga Masaba, Austin Otieno, and Kelvin Otieno all converted for Kisumu with Austin Odongo and Derrick Oketch being on target for Vihiga.
Emmanuel Adunga shot straight into the waiting palms of Kisumu goalkeeper Ouma while Allan Litwaka’s effort grazed the crossbar.
Vihiga will now lock horns with Nakuru in the third-place playoffs at the Police Sacco stadium on Monday. Nakuru lost 3-1 to Homabay in the other semifinal encounter staged at Utalii grounds.
