Sifuna's sole strike against Talanta earn Sofapaka first win of season

The 2009 league champions Sofapaka have registered the first win in the 2022-2023 Football Kenya Federation Premier League season after beating FC Talanta 1-0 at Kasarani Annex.

Sofapaka got the three points courtesy of Ambrose Sifuna who struck early in the first half to not only open his goal account in the season but also give his side his first win of the season.

The result means that Talanta have now lost three successive matches as they had bowed to Ulinzi Stars and Kakamega Homeboyz in the last rounds.

Talanta head coach Kenneth Kenyatta regretted that the poor run had spilled to the New Year but promised to arrest it.

"Off the pitch issues have contributed to our poor run. We have not been training as a unit at all but things will look up soon," he said.

The Talanta back line worked overtime to contain pressure from the Sofapaka forwards who camped at their area in a bid to break the deadlock. 

Talanta goalkeeper James Omusinde pulled a couple of decent saves early in the game to keep his side that was struggling to smart out of their half in the game. 

After wasting chances Sofapaka took the lead in the 25th minute through Sifuna whose low drive that sailed past the stretching Omusinde. 

Kenyan attacker joins top side in Slovenia

It is after conceding that Talanta began to eat into Sofapaka's dominance but were not sharp enough to breach the former league champion's wall and sneak the ball past Kevin Omondi who had nothing to do in the first half. 

However, Sofapaka who heavily relied on their pacy flankers to invade the Talanta area made a couple of runs that kept the defence busy and barred the team from committing more numbers to the final third. 

There was slight improvement on Talanta's side upon resumption for the second half as the team sought to level matters and possibly chase the winning goal. 

However, the team appeared to struggle to in maintaining the pace they had injected after recess, a relapse that Sofapaka capitalized and began making inroads to the area in search for the second goal. 

The two teams continued to wrestle each other in search for goals but the chances created wen begging but Sofapaka will be glad to have collected maximum points.

Talanta

James Omusinde, Peter Njammah, Erick Lusala, Luis Masika, Shela Mandela, Castro Ogendo (Alex Luganji 88), Gershon Likono (Mathew Angal 62), Vincent Owino, Dennis Oalo, Michael Jairo, Brian Yakhama(December Kisaka 88)

Unused substitutes 

Kevin Otieno, George Onyango, Ian Omondi, Alphric Omondi

Sofapaka 

Kevin Omondi, Brian Wepo, Titus Achesa (Nixon Omondi 46), David Nshimirimana, Ronald Otieno, Samuel Olwande, Sunday Sébastine, Roy Okal, Ambrose Sifuna, Lucky Mweu, Roddy Manga

Unused substitutes 

Simon Masaka, Jacob Onyango, Alex Imbusia, Kevin Okoth, David Otieno