The Suba Lakers participated in the
Kisumu Youth Football Association (KYFA) Nationwide Ladies Tournament during the weekend of April 25-27, 2014. Some of the top teams from all over the
country traveled to Kisumu to compete.
Since the Kenya Women’s Premier League hasn’t yet started this year,
many Premier League teams flocked to the tournament. In addition to great football, KYFA does an
excellent job of bringing in successful women to share with the girls. Throughout the 3-day tournament, speakers
discussed many topics which affect young girls in Kenya today. This year, the club took two teams to compete
in both tournament categories; Under 15 and Open Age.
On the field, our Under 15 team showed great skill and
teamwork on the smaller pitch designed for the 7 v. 7 competition. Though many of the other teams used players
who were over the age of 15, our Suba Lakers were young girls with great
potential. In their first match they
defeated Ojol 2-0 on goals by June Brenda and Joan Onunya. In the 2nd match, they ran into a
tough team from Western Province called the Wiyeta Bee’s. The Bee’s scored early on from a free kick,
but Phylice Akoth equalized in the 2nd half. The Lakers had a flurry of chances in the
closing minutes, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw. In the first match of the 2nd day,
we played the Soccer Angels from Nairobi.
The two teams were tied atop the pool coming into the game. The Angels were a very mature and experienced
team who have played together for many years.
They were the favorites coming into the tournament. They were shocked when the Suba Lakers came
out aggressively and dominated the 1st half. Unfortunately towards the end of the half,
one of the Angel strikers collected a rebound from the goalkeeper and kicked a
laser into the back of the net. They
didn’t get many other chances because of great defense from Lakers Jecinter
Atieno and Florence Wangoi. The 2nd
half continued similarly to the first half and the Lakers hit the post multiple
times but couldn’t score. Even in the
final minute, the Lakers created two great chances which ultimately didn’t
produce a goal.
After the Angels match, the Suba Lakers protested the
opponents’ age. The KYFA officials met
and concluded that 2 of their players were overage and would be ineligible for
the remainder of the tournament, but they said the results of our match would
not be changed. Led by midfielder
Felistas Atieno, the Lakers took out their aggression on their final
preliminary opponent Asol with a resounding 6-0 victory. In the four games, Lakers Goalkeeper Lourine
Awuor played so well and only allowed 2 goals, and saving many near goals, but
the 2 that were scored were costly. At
the end of the pool matches, we finished 1 point behind 2nd place
and thus didn’t qualify for the Semifinals.
In the Free Age category, our girls battled hard. Several of our top Suba Lakers were not able
to play with us in the tournament because of injuries, home responsibilities,
and a few were also playing with their secondary school teams. That gave opportunities for some of the other
players to step into their roles and get a chance to gain some valuable
experience against strong competition.
In the first match, we were pitted against the pre-tournament favorite
and Kenyan Premier League team, Thika Queens.
We held them scoreless until the final minute of the 1st
half. They controlled possession and
added a 2nd goal in the second half to win 2-0. In the next match, we played a strong Wiyeta
Bee’s team who took control in the opening half, but with some great saves from
Suba Laker Goalkeeper Lillian Awuor, they couldn’t score. After a rousing half-time speech, the Suba
Lakers responded with a spirited 2nd half passing the ball and
communicating much louder. In extra
time, the Bee’s were awarded a penalty kick, but Lillian made a great diving
save to preserve a barren 0-0 draw. The
3rd game produced the same result, 0-0, against Suba Laker Rivals,
Kisumu Leads United. In our final
preliminary match, we played another rival, Kobala. The Kobala team captain, Caren Akeyo, is a
Suba Laker who grew up under the club.
She played hard defense against her sisters and made life difficult for
the Suba Lakers. Kobala scored 1 goal on
a keeper’s error and desperately tried to hold on to the lead so they could
qualify for the Semifinals. We had
several great opportunities to score in the 2nd half, but never managed
to put one in. We finished 4th
in the pool of 6 teams.
Though both of our teams were now out of the tournament,
we scheduled a friendly match against our friends from Jera Secondary School
for the following day. We mixed in some
of our Juniors with the older players and had a lot of encouragement from the
bench. We finally scored our 1st
goal of the tournament (for the Open Age team) on a beautiful cross from
Damaris Awino into Dorothy Adhiambo. The friendly match ended in a loss of 3-1
but the girls gave a great effort and enjoyed the entire weekend.
