{"id":6931,"date":"2023-11-21T02:38:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T02:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/involvement.co.ke\/?p=6931"},"modified":"2023-11-21T02:38:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T02:38:04","slug":"olunga-scores-brace-as-harambee-stars-thrash-seychelles-5-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/2023\/11\/21\/olunga-scores-brace-as-harambee-stars-thrash-seychelles-5-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Olunga Scores Brace as Harambee Stars Thrash Seychelles 5-0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Harambee Stars thrashed Seychelles in their second fixture of World Cup 2026 qualifiers at the Stade F\u00e9lix Houphou\u00ebt Boigny in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on Monday, November 20.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Stars run riot in the opening ten minutes as Michael Olunga pounced on a miscued back pass from Seychelles defender Elie Sopha to slot a low driven shot past Carlos Simeon to claim his first goal in the third minute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Al-Duhail striker was red hot as he bagged his second of the match when a flick of the ball helped it to the lanky striker&#8217;s path with Olunga making no mistake with his cool and finish to put Kenya 2-0 ahead.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Olunga had the chance to complete a first half hat-trick when he managed to wriggle his way through on goal but the Seychelles shot-stopper denied him the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Things got heated near the half-hour mark when Seychelles&#8217; Helton Monay was carded for his troubles as he fouled Stars&#8217; Richard Odada who was not pleased with the challenge.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With the resumption of play, Olunga had another to complete a first half hat-trick when Eric Johana quickly released him with a quickly taken freekick but the Seychelles shot-stopper denied him yet again to keep the scoreline 2-0.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Firat&#8217;s side ended the half strongly when Johanna caught the Seychelles defenders unawares with a quickly taken throw-in to find Masud Juma who was alert to the situation to bag his second goal of the campaign and Stars third of the game.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Marcelo&#8217;s brilliant showing was short lived as he was withdrawn during half time with Abud Omar coming on for the AIK left back.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Olunga opened the second half on the same note forcing Simeon to an early save after he was found brilliantly by the newly introduced Abud Omar.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Omar was in the thick of the action yet again as his cross ricocheted off a Seychelles defender to land on Olunga&#8217;s path with the Stars captain hitting the post before the ball landed to Johanna who sent it wide in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Seychelles made a triple substitution nearing the hour mark with Kenan Nourice coming on for Monay as winger Brandon Labrosse and Majid Freminot came on for Rhio Damoo and Elie Sopha respectively.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Substitute Omar finally got to have his say as his cut-back cross found Rooney Onyango at the edge of the box as he slotted it far corner to give Kenya a comfortable 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Firat made a double substitution minutes later as dependable winger Ayub Timbe came on for the relentless Johanna while Benson Omalla rested the third goal scorer Masud.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The substitution quickly paid off as Omalla soon found the back of the net after Rooney applied pressure to rob a Seychelles defender before setting up his club teammate in the 73rd minute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It could have been 6-0 in favour of Harambee Stars in the 83rd minute but Omalla&#8217;s would be second goal was overruled for offside as Firat&#8217;s side saw out the game for 5-0 win.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harambee Stars thrashed Seychelles in their second fixture of World Cup 2026 qualifiers at the Stade F\u00e9lix Houphou\u00ebt Boigny in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on Monday, November 20. &nbsp; Stars run riot in the opening ten minutes as Michael Olunga pounced on a miscued back pass from Seychelles defender Elie Sopha to slot a low driven [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kenyan-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}