AFC Leopards registered its first win of the new season with goals from Jimmy Bagaye and Bernard Mang’oli giving Ingwe a two nil win over Mathare United.
STARTING XI
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| The Starting XI |
Kingi started with Lloyd Wahome and Anthony Kimani in central defense. Dennis Nzomo and Tirus Omondi as the holding midfielders and Francis Ouma as the lone striker.
AFC LEOPARDS’ FORMATION
The team sheet had three players who can play as centre back – and who have in the past played as centre backs for Ingwe; Martin Imbalambala, Jonas Nahimana and Erick Masika. The question was where or how will the three plays.
Koops maintained Nahimana and Masika in central defense and Imbalambala took his place just ahead of the back four. This meant Bernard Mang’oli was pushed high up. At first Mang’oli seemed to be sitting deep with Imbalambala but he played high up with Salim Khamis and the two were flanked by Bageya to the right and Okwemba to the left. Allan Wanga was alone in the striking position in what was a 4-1-4-1 formation.
MATHARE UNITED POSITIONING
Mathare United played almost the entire game with a 4-2-3-1 formation. Dennis Nzomo and Tirus Omomdi the double pivot. Behind Francis Ouma – the lone forward – were Andrew Tololwa, David Mwaura and debutant Jamal Mohammed the attacking midfielder.
AFC Leopards started the match the brighter side and made good passes in the midfield but as the game progressed, both side got in to the game.
And Ingwe took the lead by capitalizing on a mistake made by Mathare’s defense and the goal keeper.
Despite having a decent performance in terms of possession against the brilliant AFC Leopards, Mathare could not threaten.
SECOND HALF
AFC Leopards clearly were the better side between the two and they started the second half just as they did in the first half period and they were awarded with a goal in the opening stages.
· A brilliant cut in and dribbling by the left full back Abbassi Kiwalabye,
· Wanga who had drifted to his right was available to receive the through pass from Abbassi and cross it in,
· Mang’oli who moved up to occupy the space left behind by Wanga, met the ball and neatly scored.
With a two goal deficit, Mathare didn’t change it formation. It was only Mwaura and Tololwa who occasionally switched position.
SUBSTITUTIONS
Andrew Tololwa being replaced by Gabriel Nduru seemed to be a direct change and it had no effect on the formation. And also when Jamal Mohammed was replaced by Anthony Khadudu, he was positioned behind the centre forward.
Jesse Were’s introduction changed the system. He replaced Dennis Nzomo. Mathare United switched to a 4-4-2 formation as they tried to get themselves back in the game. Were joined Ouma in attack. Omondi moved up to join Nduru, Khadudu and Mwaura in a flat midfield of four.
Ingwe used only two of its reserve players, Victor Ochieng – a forward - replaced Charles Okwemba – a midfielder - and they switched to a 4-3-3. Bageya moved up on his left, Ochieng played as the outside right and Allan Wanga the centre forward. In the midfield, Imbalambala was at the base, Salim and Mang’oli side by side ahead of him in a triangle-esque shape.
Finally Bageya went off and was replaced by Mike Baraza who seemed to have the freedom to play in any position towards the end of the match. He was an outside left, dropped deep on the flank and even came into the central midfield position.
CONCLUSION
Jaan Koops got his strategy right by playing Martin Imbalambala in deep position. He dictated the tempo of the match and was more composed when playing his passes. He created attacks from his deep position.
Jimmy Bageya was excellent in his wide position. His dribbling and trickery when cutting in from wide area was vital in most of AFC Leopards’ attacks.
Mathare United rarely caused problems in AFC’s goal and were the second best teams. Jamal’s performance gave Kingi a positive point to take out of the game.
Interesting. Will link the blog to my blog.
ReplyDeleteThought the formation was 5-3-2 but this seems to be something debatable.
Wanga drifted too far to the right at times. In the first half, he even had a shot on goal from that wing.
The second goal was also created from the wing by Wanga. He wasn't an out-and-out striker and for long spells in the first half, Bagaye was sitting deep (perhaps that is why you had Wanga out as a lone striker)
No probs and thank you.
DeleteAt first when I saw the team sheet, I thought Imbalambala, Nahimana and Masika would play as the centre backs with the full backs given the attacking role (the 5-3-2 you're saying). But Imbalambala didn't join the back line and instead, he was ahead of it.
Again another player who you'd think would play alongside Wanga was Bagaye. But he was drifting in from the left flank - probably because he is not a natural winger to stretch the game wide.
And of course Allan Wanga wasn't going to be a static center forward; at least moving into wide areas to leave his marker and create space for himself.
Job well done... Imbalambala provided the pass to Wanga for the second goal. You can confirm from the footage in www.kpl.co.ke
DeleteThanks. I saw Abbasi do that but thanks for the heads up bro.
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