Odindo Ayieko
18 May 2011
Nairobi — Sofapaka may be shining on the continental club scene but they are struggling locally.
They meet Karuturi Sports in a Kenyan Premier League match on Thursday afternoon at Nyayo National Stadium as pressure mounts on them to move up the table.
Since beating Tusker by a solitary goal on April 5, the 2009 champions and the country’s biggest spending club, have only collected two points from a possible 15 and are 13 points off the leaders with 12 points from 10 games.
They have only won thrice in the entire season thus far.
Coach Francis Kimanzi, who took over from stand in coach Ezekiel Akwana on April 1, is yet to find his right footing in the league, though on the continental front, Sofapaka are 180 minutes away from the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup with only Tunisia’s Club Africain standing on their way.
Kimanzi may complain of a congested schedule that has seen his side play 11 games in five weeks but that does not explain how a club with arguably the best bench-power in the league has collected only two points in five games.
Collected single point
On Thursday afternoon against Karuturi Sports all expectations from the club president Elly Kalekwa are the team must win.
“We are in all competitions to win. We have dropped so many points and the time to put our league challenge back on track is now,” said Kalekwa.
Karuturi has not been performing any better in the league. They have dropped to 15th in the standings with only eight points, the last time they won was on April 3 in their 2-0 home win over Congo United.
Since then they have collected only a single point from a possible 15 and coach James Nandwa is a man under immense pressure.
“We must remain focused. We are playing well but something is not working right. It’s time we started winning to save our season,” said Nandwa.
Thursday’s match may look easy on paper for Sofapaka, but they’ve been struggling against ‘small’ teams.
They lost to bottom-placed City Stars and have also lost to Rangers (2-0), Ulinzi (2-1), drawn 0-0 with both KCB and Gor Mahia.
Anything short of a win will not augur well with Kimanzi’s title ambitions as the season heads to the halfway mark.
They still have to play Congo United, AFC Leopards, Western Stima and Thika United.
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Kenya: Struggling Sofapaka Tackle Karuturi