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Kenya's MYSA U-13 team clinch soccer gold in Norway |
The Chinese side, the pre-match favourites, are a specialized football academy f or elite young players in Beijing, China.
The team, known as the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), is based in Nair obi's Mathare slums and draws players from the slum and its environs.
It seeks, among other things, to sensitise the youth on environmental conservati on and dangers posed by drugs abuse.
Mathare's winning goal was scored by 12-year-old Harrison Mwendwa who also deservedly won the Golden Boot Award.
In eight Norway Cup matches, Mwendwa scored an impressive 16 goals and set up an other five.
He also also played without getting a single yellow card and won the overall Best Player/Fairplay Award in three matches.
Earlier, in the semi-finals the Kenyans beat Asker FK of Norway 2-0. Mwendwa also opened the scoring in the match with a goal in the 12th minute.
Tyson Odhiambo scored the second goal for Mathare in the 24th minute. Both goals were set up by David Maina.
In addition to the Mathare strikers, the defenders were also in top form throughout the week.
No team succeeded in scoring against the Kenyan boys. In eight matches, they outscored their opponents by an amazing 34-0 goals.
The MYSA under-14 girls and under-16 boys both qualified but lost by single goal s in their tough quarter-final matches.
In their quarter-final match with Ovrevoll FK of Norway, the U-14 girls took an early lead with a goal in the ninth minute by Benta Mulwale.
They wasted two clear chances in the first half. The generally larger and stronger Ovrevoll girls counter-attacked strongly and scored two goals in the second half to win the game and slot in the semi-finals.
In the U-14 girls final, FFA Mali beat YES FC of Zimbabwe 6-1 to win the gold me dal.
In five Norway Cup matches this week, the MYSA U-14 girls still impressed everyo ne by their fast paced, one-touch football and by outscoring their opponents 28- 3 goals.
Millicent Awuor and Mary Wanjiru scored 11 and 7 goals respectively to emege the top scorers for the Kenyans.
In their quarter-final match, the MYSA U-16 boys faced Chivas FC from the National Football Academy in Mexico which had won the Dana Cup the previous week.
The teams were evenly matched for pace and skill for the first 20 minutes with b oth teams missing several good scoring chances.
Chivas then grabbed the lead with a 21st-minute goal. In the 11th minute of the second half, Mathare striker Francis Kahata broke through the Chivas defence, dribbled their goalkeeper and scored the equalizer.
But with only a few minutes left in the match, Chivas scored the winning goal. Chivas won their semi-final match against KFUM FC of Norway and were to face Valerenga FK of Norway in the championship final.
The MYSA U-16 top scorers were Francis Kahata with six goals and Daniel Muchoki, who netted five.
In seven Norway Cup matches, the Kenyan boys under-16 side outscored their oppon ents by 21-9.
The under-13 boys victory raised the MYSA tally to 11 gold medals in 17 years, t he second highest number of gold medals won in the 36-year history of the Norway Cup.
Brazil's Pequininos FC is the top club.
The three MYSA teams fro Kenya travelled to Holland Tuesday where they will play the Dutch host families in Wijchen (U-13 boys) and Woudenberg (U-14 girls) and p articipate in local youth tournaments and community activities.
In Holland, the U-16 boys will again be hosted by the Union Sports Club in Nijme gen and participate in a new international youth tournament in the nearby town o f Groesbeek which will feature top youth teams from Australia, Germany, Holland a n d Ukraine.
They will also play in the Delft International Tournament featuring the youth si des of top Dutch professional clubs.
Last year in Delft, the MYSA U-16 boys won the gold medal.
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