The national U17 Women’s soccer team,Junior Starlets head coach Mildred Cheche has expressed the team’s readiness to face Cameroon in the third round of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
Kenya progressed to the final round of the qualifiers after defeating Uganda 3-0 during the return leg,second round clash played Sunday at Nyayo National Stadium advancing with a 5-0 aggregate after winning the first leg 2-0 in Kampala.
Cameroon saw off Ethiopia 6-2 on aggregate to reach the third round.
Against Uganda Patience Asiko scored one while Brenda Achieng added a second half brace.
‘’When we played our away match there were some gaps and we had to fix them in the training and also we had our best players who were not able to compete physically but once we got someone like Asiko{Patience} who could hold the ball for the rest to join in ,it made the team comfortable in attack,we got the first goal immediately”, said Junior Starlets head coach Mildred Cheche.
Cheche heaped praise on the 13-year old Ugunja Township forward Brenda Achieng who took her chances with aplomb scoring a brace on her national team debut.
‘’she’s really a good player and able to read the game well, she plays under a lot of pressure so I wanted to remove pressure from her so that shes comfortable when she’s coming in so that’s why I brought her in the second hand half, and that why she was able to express herself even more’’,Cheche remarked.
Kenya will now face Cameroon on 18th April in the first leg qualifier before travelling to the Central African nation for the return leg a week later.
‘’Cameroon are quite physical. We must work hard in training and on our physical’’ Cheche Said
‘’We have watched Cameroon against Ethiopia so we have been preparing ourselves mentally and psychologically.we know that they are a little bit bigger but football is all about the brain so we are ready for them’’, Captain Halima Imbachi said.
The winner over the two leg will qualify for the 2025 finals scheduled 17TH October -8th November in Morocco.
Kenya is attempting to qualify for the second consecutive World Cup after their debut last year in Dominican Republic.
