Tusker’s double lends colour to lacklustre season

The 2016 SportPesa Premier League season did not witness fierce competition for the gong as had  been anticipated, but the period had its fair share of drama, thrills and spills.

For champions Tusker, it was a fulfilling season as they achieved a rarity, claiming the league title and the GOtv Shield to complete a season’s double.

The brewers’ impressive feat was partly due to the lack of form on the part of 15-time champions Gor Mahia whom they dethroned after K’Ogalo failed to replicate the high standards they had set in 2015 when they claimed the coveted title unbeaten and with four games to spare.

The brewers took home Sh4.5 million for their exploits in the league, and a further Sh2 million for winning the GOtv Shield. Tusker also qualified to represent Kenya in next year’s Caf Champions League, while Ulinzi will compete in Caf Confederation Cup by virtue of finishing runners-up in the GOtv Shield.

In contrast, Tusker won the league title with a game to spare after they piped AFC Leopards 1-0 at Afraha Stadium, Nakuru, on November 12 to seal their status as champs. They would later twist the knife in the back of wounded Gor with a prized 1-0 win on the final day of action on November 19.

On that day, Tusker’s dangerman Allan Wanga lived true to his huge reputation when it mattered the most with a sumptuous second-half free kick that nestled at the back of the net on their coronation day as Gor fell on their sword at a near-empty Nyayo National Stadium.

When they look back, the brewers, who also won the league title in 2012, will take comfort in ending a torturous 23-year wait for a domestic crown by claiming the GOtv Shield. But when Kenya’s football history books are written, the soft-spoken Tusker coach Paul Nkata from Uganda and his compatriot, defender Shafik Batambuze, surely deserve a chapter.

Nkata checked in at Tusker’s Ruaraka base in January with a clear goal of wrestling their league title from Gor Mahia but at the end of the year he achieved it with a bonus to boot – the GOtv Shield.

Batambuze weighed in for Tusker with two crucial league goals which earned him the nickname “the scoring defender” among his peers. The season also saw Ulinzi Stars forward John Mark Makwatta claim the Golden Boot on 15 goals as the soldiers finished third in the league.

However, his goals tally was way too low compared to the 22scored by former Tusker talisman Jesse JackSon Were in 2015 when he fended off stiff challenge from the physically imposing Michael ‘Engineer’ Olunga, formerly of Gor Mahia.

The season also saw Muhoroni Youth win their first major title, beating Gor 1-0 in the final of KPL Top 8 knock-out tournament to go home Sh1 million richer. Western Stima’s Kenneth Muguna was crowned the Most Valuable Player of the season during the SportPesa Footballer of the Year awards, eliciting a strong debate on social media as to the criteria the selectors used to arrive at the winner.

Posta Rangers and Kakamega Homeboyz who were both promoted to the top division in January also impressed as they battled with the big boys to finish a respectable fourth and eighth respectively.

Rangers accumulated 45 points to finish fourth and also produced the Goalkeeper and Defender of the Year in Patrick Matasi and Joackins Atudo respectively at the SportPesa Footballer of the Year Awards.

Homeboyz, operating on a shoe-string budget, also defied the odds to finish eighth, therefore qualifying for next season’s KPL Top eight tournament. But it was a season to forget for Nairobi City Stars and Ushuru who were relegated.