Wasteful Olympic Girls share spoils with Nyakach

Olympic Girls of Metropolitan Region chances of survival in the ongoing Airtel Rising Stars Secondary Schools Games shrunk further after drawing 1-1 with Lake Region queens Nyakatch on Wednesday at the Moi Kisumu Stadium.

Judith Atieno gave Olympic the lead at the half hour mark, exploiting confusion in the opponents in the box to shoot powerfully past goalkeeper Lilian Awuor.

Nyakatch had to wait until the 62nd minute to equalise through Cynthia Akinyi, who was on score sheet in Tuesday’s 4-0 mauling of Kirigara.

Olympic who lost 2-0 to Nginda Girls on Tuesday now have to win their last pool clash against Kirigara Girls of Highlands on Thursday by a huge margin and hope Nginda beats Nyakatch.

Across the road in Kisumu Boys School, Nginda sealed a semifinal berth after eliminating Kirigara 2-0. Rachel Muema and Irene Amutambi netted for the Aberdare champions, to become the first team to reach the last four stage.

Olympic played half of the second half one lady less, after Judith Atieno was booked for the second time and consequently shown red card.

Principal Maurice Okumu, who is a member of the technical bench, decried poor officiating in the match, saying it will require luck to make it to the semis.

“I don’t like talking about referees but sincerely Nyakatch had an extra player on the field, the referee himself. The red card came when our team had pressed their opponents to their goal and you could see a goal was coming. Just a simple collision resulted to the card, it was unfair but we accept the result.”

“My side is young, quite new compared to last year’s team, honestly having them in this stage is a big attempt but we still believe we should have done better,” told the principal who spoke on behalf of crestfallen coach Joseph Orao.

Olympic commanded proceedings from the first whistle, Elizabeth Wambui and Atieno wasting glorious opportunities in the first 15 minutes.

Wambui, a Harambee Starlets call up during the 2017 AFCON qualifiers,
rattled the woodwork twice in the 10th and 18th minutes the ball ricocheting out on both occasions.

Dorcas Okwumo should have put Olympic in the driving seat in the 26th from a spot kick after the opponents handled the ball in the box, but blast it wide off target.

In the second half, Olympic was more vicious in attack, but Nyakatch sat behind to soak the pressure until their breakthrough time when Lilian Awuor shot from outside the area to the roof of the net.

Atieno’s absence after the 74th minute red card killed Metropolitan’s girls pace though the hosts could not take the advantage to cement a place in the semis.