Omari breaks Starlets hearts as Tanzania soar to Cecafa glory

Harambee Starlets fell at the final hurdle of the inaugural Cecafa Women Championships when the Kenyans went down 2-1 to Tanzania in a keenly-contested decider played at the FUFA Njeru Technical Centre in Jinja, Uganda on Tuesday.

A first half brace from Mwanahamis Omari, the second a controversial strike, put the Kilimanjaro Queens on the front seat at the break before Christine Nafula halved the deficit in the 48th minute.

Try as they might, the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations bound Starlets could not fashion at least an equaliser to take the game to post match penalties as they lost for the first time in the regional tournament.

What will haunt the Cameroon bound Starlets most is the good run they posted before the final, winning all matches, scoring 22 goals and conceding only two.

Kenyans expectations were fixed on nothing less than the trophy considering their build-up for the tournament that included the COTIF women tournament in Spain with Football Kenya Federation even funding fans to travel to Jinja by bus to support the team in the final.

Kilimanjaro Queens had however, not read the script when they raced off the blocks to score twice in the opening half leaving David Ouma’s side with too much to do to crawl the difference as they had done against Ethiopia in the semis when they recovered from 1-0 to lead 3-1 before being pegged back to 3-2 on Sunday.

Starlets top scorer, Esse Akida was crushed by the outcome attributing their defeat to being mugged in the opening stanza besides claims of dodgy officiating when speaking to Citizen Digital after the match.

“They did not play better than us, we did our best but they spoilt everything by the two early goals. I can’t even tell what they did better than us, but the referee clearly denied us. I have never seen a referee rescinding his decision to call for a foul because the player has gone ahead and scored.

“Kenyans should not be heartbroken by the loss, it will inspire us more ahead of Awcon,” the striker who ended with five for the tournament added.

Centre back Irine Ogutu acknowledged Tanzania was a hard nut to crack but underscored the result would have been different had the referee been fair.

“They played well, it was a very tough match but we were killed psychologically by the referee when he awarded that controversial goal.

“We have however picked a few lessons from them, and the areas we must rectify before going to AWCON. Although we wanted to bring home the trophy, we should count reaching the final an achievement,” Ogutu offered.

Dorcas Shikobe echoed her teammates declaring the tournament a success despite the cruel final blow.

Omari notched the opener in the 27th minute when she raced past a static Shikobe and Ogutu in defence before calmly beating Vivian Akinyi in what was a cheap goal for Starlets to concede.

Her second saw loud protests, ultimately in vain from the Kenyans who argued Donisa had handled the ball before Omari put it past Akinyi for the double.

After going to the break two goals down, Ouma’s charges needed just 10 minutes into the second half to pull one back and the hope of repeating the semi final comeback against Ethiopia was evident.

Wafula was withdrawn for the experienced former captain and Team Manager, Doreen Nabwire to bolster the midfield, but Ouma’s gamble backfired when she pulled out injured forcing the introduction Cherish Avila.

Despite Kenya dominating the latter stages of the match, Tanzania stood strong in the defense, thwarting several promising attempts by Starlets to hold on for the historic win.

-Additional reporting by Geoffrey Mwamburi