Flames hold Stars at home

Harambee Stars' Murven Otinya (left) and Luck Malata of Malawi during friendly match at Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Kenya and Malawi played to a barren draw in yesterday’s international friendly match at Machakos Stadium.

Kenya dominated the early part of the match, coming close on several occasions.

The visitors were gifted with an early corner in the second minute when Bolton Omwenga made a bad clearance.

Then Calvin Odongo’s shot hit the side netting as Kenya looked to settle in the match.

Malawi got their first real chance on the 13th minute when Simon Singa picked out Kelvin Hanginda whose header failed to beat Patrick Matasi in the Kenyan goal.

Before that Samuel Onyango had blasted wide from a clear chance. Robinson Kamura’s free kick on the 15th minute was well dealt with by the Malawi goalkeeper.

Malawi had a good chance to open the scores in the 20th minute but a hawk-eyed Kamura hacked down Simon Singa at the edge of the Kenyan box for which he was cautioned.

Kenyan coach Stanley Okumbi made the first substitution on the 30th minute resting Daniel Mwaura for Darius Musagha but it did not yield any goals as both teams went to rest without scoring.

When the second half kicked off, Samuel Onyango came very close only to blast wide. Then Malawi forward Simedu Singa nearly caught Patrick Matasi flat footed with a well taken shot. The Kenyan goalkeeper reacted quickly to deal with the danger and handed Malawi another corner.

After that Kenya lost a good number of chances and were unlucky not to get a goal.

Kenyan coach Stanley Okumbi admitted that the disjointed performance by his team was caused by lack of effective training.

“Some players were arriving just yesterday and others were involved in league matches and so could not do much,” he said.