Mathare win under-20 championship

Mathare United on Friday won their maiden Kenyan Premier League Under-20 Championship after edging out Gor Mahia 1-0 in the final staged at the Nyayo National Stadium.

Both teams were bidding for their first silverware in this competition, and K’Ogalo lost out via a stunning winner scored by Mathare’s Alfayo Oyugi in the second minute of added time.

Both teams had begun preparing for a penalty shoot-out when the second-half replacement bent a free kick past K’Ogalo’s Ismail Otieno, sending the partisan crowd made up of mainly Gor Mahia supporters into a state of disbelief.

Mathare midfielder Lawrence Luvanda had been felled just outside the box, winning the free kick that Oyugi so accurately converted to secure his team the gleaming trophy as well as the Sh500,000 prize money.

Referee Davis Omweno brought matters to a close shortly afterward as K’Ogalo young ones slumped to the ground in disappointment, each burying their faces in their hands as they painfully came to terms with the reality of no title for them.

Gor coach Morris Onyango termed it “another painful loss”, although he acknowledged that they had nobody to blame but themselves.

‘MODERN FOOTBALL’

“This is what happens in modern football. Teams win games by capitalising on the shortcomings and mistakes of their opponents.

“We have dominated this game especially in the second half but how many chances did we miss? We missed enough,” he said after the match.

For Mathare coach Gabriel Njoroge however, it was just one of the many successful excursions that he had previously recorded with the juniors.

“I have come from very far with these young ones. The first time I was called head coach I was coaching the under-12 team and we ended up winning the Norway Cup abroad. We did that three times during my stay there and I have always believed that coaching the junior team would always yield success.

“I only hope that the management will someday transform this into a national league so that the young players can get to grow together and become even stronger,” the former Nairobi City Stars coach said.

To get to this stage, Gor juniors dispatched Ushuru 2-0 in the semi-finals played on Tuesday at Camp Toyoyo, while Mathare overcame last year’s finalists Kakamega Homeboyz 3-1 in post-match penalties after that game had ended in a 1-1 stalemate.

On Thursday, Ushuru claimed third position after edging out last edition’s finalists Kakamega Homeboyz 4-2 in post-match penalties in the third place pay off staged at Camp Toyoyo.