By James Waindi in Dar es Salaam
David Banda’s brace and a Victor Nyirenda’s first minute goal made Harambee Stars coach Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee swallow his words when Malawi beat Kenya 3-2 in a thriller in the ongoing Cecafa Tusker Cup here on Monday afternoon.
Nyirenda scored the fastest goal in the history of the completion when he pounced on George Owino’s back pass to open the scores just 51 seconds into the match. Banda scored his goals in the 26th minute and 81st minute, while John Baraza and Fred Ojwang scored Stars goals in the 34th and 47th minutes respectively. Prior to the fixture, Mulee had said despite Malawi’s 6-1 drubbing of Chad in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in October, they would tame them and ensure winning the first two matches.
"I am very disappointed for losing the opening match, but on the other hand happy because the players today had character as they managed to come from two goals behind and leveled the scores in first half.
We have been having a problem with scoring goals because before today we had not scored in 270 minutes, so I am happy we finally found the back of the net and our main problem was defense. If we address our defensive problems we can go all the way," said Mulee.
Malawi coach Kinnah Phiri praised Kenya for their challenge and tipped them to reach the knockout stages despite their loss in the opening match.
"Today’s match was very tough, I would like to congratulate Kenya for a good display because Malawi has never lost a lead under my tutelage so I was somehow disappointed by the team, but I can excuse them because I had five uncapped players in the starting line-up," said Phiri.
Kenya received a shocker in the first minute when Owino headed back the ball to custodian Wilson Oburu, just for the ball to turn up as a perfect pass for Nyirenda who slotted in the opener past an advancing Oburu.
Defensive mishap
Joshua Kasule also almost capitalised on another defensive mishap in the 18th minute when he picked the ball from Stephen Ochola and forced Oburu to a fine save. Two minutes later, Ochola was put through by Ojwang’ on the other end, but Malawi defender Ivis Kafoteka thwarted his efforts just before he could pull the trigger.
Kenya continued pushing for an equaliser and Malawi custodian Ali Amadu was forced to make a single hand save in the 22nd minute to parry James Situma’s powerful freekick. Stars were made to pay for another defensive mishap in the 26th minute when Oburu spilled the ball. He picked himself to block Nyirenda’s strike, but David Banda made no mistake with the second rebound, finding the roof of the net with a cracker.
In the 34th minute Bob Mugali who earned his first full cap on Tuesday, collected the ball from Ojwang’ at the half way line, ran on the left wing before beating two defenders and cutting in the ball for Baraza to easily nod in an empty net. Stars added the second in the 47th minute, through Ojwang.
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