NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 26 – Despite sitting second on the national women’s hockey league, Blazers’ captain Tracy Karanja says their sole focus this season is to defend their league title.
The nine-time Africa Cup of Club Championships champions lie second on the log with 13 points, two behind leaders Strathmore University who have won all their five matches.
Karanja described their current position on the table as discomforting and said they want to work hard towards usurping the students from the top.
“Definitely…. we are used to being at the top and our current position on the table is very uncomfortable. That (regaining league leadership) is one of our top priorities. We want to win every one of our remaining games and hope that our opponents (Strathmore) who we earlier lost to, drop points at some stage in the season,” Karanja said.
The skipper further pointed out that the season is still in its infancy and believes things will begin to unravel for their opponents as time goes.
“I feel like the season is still young…we are only five or six matches into the season. That means that we can still secure the title. We are definitely in contention and are one of the top teams in the country. Our opponents dropping points would really make our work easier,” she said.
The record national champions had a fruitful harvest over the weekend, collecting maximum points against DFG Wolverines and Amira Sailors on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Captain Fantastic
Karanja led the team from the front, scoring in the 14th minute on the way to a 3-0 thrashing of newbies Wolverine.
Eleanor Chebet and Joan Anjao scored in the 43rd and 59th minute to seal the rout.
A Terry Masibo penalty in the fifth minute was enough for Blazers to collect another three points in their 1-0 win against Sailors.
The bountiful outing notwithstanding, Karanja believes the team need to do more and brush up on their weaknesses in order to overcome their opponents.
“It was an okay match. Considering this was our first game in a while, it was good to win and we thank God for that. It was a good game against worthy opponents. Of course, there are things we still need to work on including the accuracy of our passes, synchrony in our forward line and moving the ball faster,” she said.
On the other hand, Wolverines’ assistant captain Jedidah Zawadi insisted they played better against the bigwigs compared to their last meeting in April when they lost by a solitary goal.
“We settled better in the second half…they were faster than us so we had to take the game at our pace. Most of them are in the national team and are more experienced so we slowed it down. I felt we moved the ball better, had a shot on target and a penalty. In the last meeting, we lost 1-0 and today we lost 3-0 but compared to back then our performance today was better,” she said.
Zawadi bemoaned the lack of squad depth that was exemplified by having only one substitute on the bench.
“We need to work on our fitness. However, the problem we are facing is that we are unable to train together since some of us come from very far. Some of us live in places like Kitengela and it becomes a challenge to report for training on time,” she said.
Zawadi added: “Possibly, after our next fixture, there will be a break. We are hoping to take advantage of that to work on our weaknesses, play some friendlies and improve on various aspects of our play.”
