KENYA/NIGERIA: Kenya and Nigeria succeed in separate Cup of Nations qualifiers

After five months in the cold due to a FIFA ban, football-mad Kenyans rejoiced in their national side's return to international competition with a rare victory on Sunday. They marked the occasion with a 2-0 victory over Swaziland in an African Nations Cup qualifier. The first half was mostly uneventful but the second half saw the Kenyan team get into the rhythm of the game, with the first goal at the 52nd minute. New comer 18 year old Patrick Oboya, sealed the Kenyan's victory half an hour later. The Swazi's were no doubt disappointed with the defeat. "I think its our middle field because the Kenyans had height advantage as we are using short players but I think we will go back to the drawing board and see," said Swaziland team captain, Mpendulo Kunene. "It was important for us to win today because we know very well that if we had lost this match it was kiss Ghana good-bye never the less we do not say that we are already in Ghana we started our journey too late, we just planned the same way we had planned the first game against Eritrea now we are lucky that the team got the three points at home," said Kenyan coach Jacob 'Ghost' Mulee. Kenya had been languishing at the bottom of Group Six with no points. They are now third, six points behind leaders Angola who have a maximum nine points and second-placed Eritrea. In another cup of nations qualifier, Nigeria's Super Eagles, narrowly defeated the Cranes of Uganda by a lone goal that was scored by Nwankwo Kanu the captain of the team. The goal came at the middle of the second half after a barren score in the first half. The victory put the Eagles at the top their group with nine points. All teams have their eye on the Africa Nations Cup tournament set to kick off on January 20th, 2008 in Ghana.

ITN Source | March 26, 2007

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