AFC Leopards, Chemelil fire blanks in Kisumu

AFC Leopards were held to a goalless draw by bogey side Chemelil Sugar in a Kenyan Premier League (KPL) match at Moi Stadium in Kisumu on Saturday.

This match was the second league assignment for coach Rodolfo Zapata after he took charge of the club late last month. He oversaw Leopards' 2-2 draw with Vihiga United last weekend before watching as his charges lost 5-4 on post-match penalties to their nemesis Gor Mahia on Tuesday in the Hull City Challenge at Afraha Stadium.

The 13-time Kenyan champions came close to grabbing the lead in the 10th minute but were denied by goalkeeper John Waw who came out of his line to save Marvin Omondi's shot.

The visitors were again at Chemelil's goal area but Baker Lukooya was dispossessed by Kelvin Wesonga before pulling the trigger.

Leopards seemed to have found their right footing early on as they pitched tent in their opponent's final third but failed to translate their dominance into goals.

Collins Neto exchanged quick passes with Yusuf Juma in the middle of the pack, but Duncan Otieno expertly read their move and cleared the danger.

Philip Muchuma then missed a sitter for Chemelil, this time failing to connect to Juma's cross from the left much to the chagrin of the handful fans at the stadium.

Leopards defender Robinson Kamura delighted fans with his bicycle kick that fell onto Odera's path inside the box but the latter failed to place Leopards ahead as he fired wide.

Wesonga then denied denied Wyvone Isuza a chance to open the scoring. But a misunderstanding between Kennedy Odhiambo and Waw almost cost Chemelil but they were lucky to escape.

Zapata made double substitution in the 58th minute with Ezekiel Otuoma and Jafary Odeny taking the places of Lukooya and Aziz Okaka respectively.

A 63rd corner kick in favour of the hosts resulted to nothing as Muchuma's header went wide. Waw made a brilliant save five minutes later as he parried wide Odenyi's strike.

Isuza's rasping shot from outside the box troubled Waw in goal with the resultant corner-kick bearing nothing for the visitors.

Isuza then failed to put Leopards on 78 minutes after he was teed up by Otuoma inside the box.

Three minutes later, Neto headed home but he was rightfully ruled offside.

Substitute Jacob Ombija was denied by Ezekiel Owade in the dying minutes.

Coach Zapata said he was impressed with his side's defensive display.

"We improved in the defensive aspect because we did not concede any goal. Moving forward ,we want to work on the rest of the aspects to ensure that we take all the three points home," said Zapata.

Chemelil Sugar's stand-in coach Charles Odera blamed the referee after the stalemate.

"The goal was not offside, the referee made a mistake in that ruling but that's football we are now focusing on our next fixture," said Odera.