Kenyan girls fall to China in ISF football finale

The Kenya Under-18 girls' team suffered a 6-4 defeat to China in the closely contested final of the International Sports Federation (ISF) Football World Cup played on Sunday 26 May at the Souyuwan Stadium in Dalian, China. 

The match ended 1-1 and was decided on post-match penalties. Clotilda Auma scored the sole penalty for Kenya during the match.

Kenya's penalties were scored by Joy Marvelous, Faith Baraza, Ruth Akinyi, and Auma

Kenya side was placed in group F together with Germany, England and Ghana and the defied all the odds to storm to the final.

They saw off Germany 1-0 through Elizabeth Mideva’s sole goal them moved on and defeat  England 2-, Joy Marvelous scored the goals.

Against Ghana,  Kenya shared a 2-2 spoil with fellow Africans in the final pool match to proceed to the semifinals where they defeated Brazil 3-1. Mideva, Michelle Waithera, and Clotilda Auma scored the goals in the match to see the team proceed to the finals.

The win assured them of a final spot where they went down to China after a spirited fight.

Despite the upset, the team's head coach Maurice Okello Okumu remained head high that his charges' lived up to the billing. He was optimistic that if exposed to such high-intensity matches, they would perform even better.

"I'm very satisfied with the girls performance. They gave this final their best. They initially considered themselves underdogs coming to the match, but every win motivated them to soar higher. Reaching this stage shows they are very optimistic and talented. They deserve their flowers," Okumu said after the match.

In same competition, the boys side was placed in Pool G together with Uganda, Benin, and Taipei and they kicked off their title hunt with a 2-1 victory over Benin before humbling Taipei 4-2. 

They however failed to sparkle after going down 2-0 to East African neighbors Uganda. The loss to Uganda saw them miss out on the top slot in their pool.

They registered a 3-0 loss to Qatar before suffering another 1-0 loss against hands of New Zealand .

They ended their campaign with a 6-1 loss to Czech Republic.

The Kenyan teams that represented were selected from the inaugural Talanta Hela U19 football tournament which happened last year.

In April 2024, they trained in Spain under the tutelage of international coaches. It was that same month that they went ahead to excel in the prestigious Costa Daurada Cup where the boys were crowned winners and the girls came in second.

Several girls from the U-17 team will be among the youngsters representing the Harambee Starlets in the upcoming rounds of the qualifiers to the 2024 U-17 Women’s World Cup slated for October in the Dominican Republic.