Weekly buzz: Leopards revival amid turmoil and Homeboyz chilled champagne awaiting coronation

AFC Leopards will surely rule again

It has been two decades of hurt for Kenya’s second most decorated football club AFC Leopards. Their current financial woes notwithstanding, Ingwe are showing very positive signs of a long term success.

At the death they sunk rich but wretched Wazito fc to record a tenth straight game without losing. Now that was unthinkable for the Ingwe at the start of the season.

Could consistency in the technical bench be the key to this stability at Ingwe in spite of prevailing difficulties? The norm has been an average of two coaches every season for Leopards. Along with the technical officials.

But the club seem to have gone a separate route of retaining coaches for longer spells and the results are surely showing, albeit in small bits.

Which way Kenya Sevens?

The performance of Kenya Sevens Rugby team at the Singapore 7’s was, well not good at all. A team so bubbling with youth, power, pace and skill struggled to even plant the ball in the try box.

Coach Innocent Simiyu has had high moments with the team but signs that something needs to change are screaming ‘right now’.

Homeboyz are surely buzzing

It seems this is the season to break the Gor Mahia and Tusker’s hegemony in Kenya’ football premier league. The Kakamega based log leaders have only lost twice this season and currently have a ten-point buffer, with just nine games to go.

There is this issue of validity of the league this season otherwise, champagne ought to be in the ice bucket awaiting the crowning moment.

The call to the referees and caretaker committee

The call to Kenyan referees to up their game continues to grow louder. Every tactician is complaining of the open bias and unprofessionalism by some of the whistlers.The censure through various media outlets seems to do little in addressing the concern. Formal complains to the relevant authorities haven't yielded fruits and time we witnessed some action.

REAL MADRID - CHELSEA    

- Life imitates art -

That's the usual witty line we occasionally bump into on social networks when someone tries to joke about some laughable coincidence between real life and some extract from a movie, etc.

But in the case of Manchester City and Liverpool, this phrase is more than accurate - the pair of Premier League top teams demonstrated out-of-this-world football on Sunday afternoon.

It was a whole other sport compared to what we watch every weekend. Even those midweek UCL ties - in which both engage - don't reach the levels we've seen at the Etihad.

City and Liverpool split points in a mouthwatering derby, postponing the decision of the new EPL champion

That would probably go in history as the best match of the entire season in the whole world. If there's any possibility of sports imitating art, then it was Pep's and Klopp's collective masterpiece. Too bad we can't have this sweet for desert any given Sunday, because then we would have eight classical arts, with football as the latest one.

- Royal Benzema -

Not long ago, it was a common thing to see 30-year-old players contemplating their upcoming retirement. Especially those attacking players who ought to run even more and keep the speed, pace and stamina on even maybe higher levels than those in the back.

But those days are gone, and forwards are like a fine wine - the older they get, the better they are. Not better, but exceptional.

Just look at Real Madrid's captain and striker Karim Benzema. Week after week, game after game, the French veteran, 34, keeps lifting the bar so high that it seems surreal.

Glorious, sublime, extraordinary: There isn't a word to do Benzema justice! It's another hat-trick

Last Wednesday, he bagged not one, not two, but three at the Stamford Bridge in the Champions League. Prior to the match, he wasn't allowed an entrance to the stadium as he did not have his accreditation by him. Eh, if only they could stop him there...

This was, no dilemma there, the most outstanding single performance of the week around the globe.

And it was the same week before and the one before that. Karim is buzzing.