Audrey Omaido netted six goals to help champions Orange Telkom women’s team rout Uganda’s Weatherhead 9-0 to reach semifinals of the Africa Cup of Club Championship at the Nairobi City Park Stadium yesterday.
Omaido sounded the boards four times in the first half and struck twice in the second while Betsy Omala, Irene Ofula and Barbara Simiyu scored one goal each to help the champions top Pool ‘A’ with nine points.
The side, coached by Jos Openda, started their title defense with a 5-2 win against Kada Queens of Nigeria and extended the good run with a 5-0 victory over Sharkia of Egypt on Monday evening. They play their local rivals Sliders on Thursday in their final group match.
The home team came into yesterday’s match as favourites and lived up to expectations. Omala opened the floodgates barely five minutes into the match, thanks to a well taken penalty corner by Omaido.
Orange took advantage of the sluggish neighbours as they build tent in their half. In the 19th minute, it was Ofula’s turn to sound the boards with a superb field goal to give the home team a 2-0 lead. The neighbours were a pale shadow of themselves as Orange dominated the match. Omaido scored four consecutive goals in the 26th,28,32 and 35 minutes respectively to lift Orange six up going into the breather.
On resumption, the script was not different as the home team continued from where they had left in the one-sided encounter. Simiyu and Omaido netted in the 55th and 60th to extend the lead to 8-0 before Omaido finished her exemplary performance with 69th minute penalty corner. In a post match interview, Orange coach Openda lauded Omaidos effort.
“We are happy to have reached semi-finals and the real task now awaits us. But first things first and we have a match against Sliders on Thursday and we look forward to another win,” noted Openda. In the women’s Pool ‘B’ Ghanain sides Police and Ghana Revenue Authority are tipped to book the two slots ahead of the knockout stages having won their first two group matches.
In the earlier match played at same venue, Weatherhead men’s team squeezed a 4-3 win against their counterparts Wananchi in men’s Pool B to record their first win of the tournament.
Vincent Kasese (5th minute), Lawrence Okongo (15th), Arnold Kasasa (33) and Lawrence Okongo (54th) scored for Weatherheads as Wananchi goals came through Emmanuel Baguma (12th) and Thomas Opio (24tth and 33 minutes).