Kenya – Uganda Test Matches Results
Men:
Game 1: Kenya 1-1 Uganda
Game 2: Kenya 0-1 Uganda
Game 3: Kenya 0-2 Uganda
Women:
Game 1: Kenya 11-00 Uganda
Game 2: Kenya 6-0 Uganda
Game 3: Kenya 5-0 Uganda
Uganda national men’s hockey team picked two wins and one draw from three games at the FIH ratified test matches against Kenya held at Sikh Union Club in Nairobi.
The event that puck dropped on Thursday last week and ended on Sunday witnessed Uganda men’s side start the tournament with a draw with Robinson Omutekete giving the hosts a lead in the 34th minute before Thomas Opio leveled matters five minutes later.
Brian Okodi scored the only goal on match day two (Saturday) as Uganda led series. Uganda would later cap the event with a 2-0 win on Sunday. Goals from Brian Bayule in the first quarter and Alfred Agaba in the second quarter handed Uganda seven points from a possible nine away against a once feared Kenyan side.
Dominance against Kenya in their own backyard could imply that Uganda men’s side have taken up the former’s place as the hockey power house in the region and Uganda men’s Coach Vincent Arnold Kasasa thinks Uganda are now the team to beat in the region.
“We are already the regional power house. We beat Kenya hands down, so we are on top now in the region,” Kasasa said in an interview.
Kasasa attributed his side’s success to early preparations saying that; “we prepared for two months and a half which helped us a lot. I feel very proud, that I have broken the Kenyan dominance in the game.”
The test matches were organized and confirmed after the cancelation of the Northeast Africa Cup of Nations (ACN) Hockey Qualifiers that were scheduled to kick off early this month in Nairobi.
The Men and Women qualifiers were canceled after only the hosts and Uganda confirmed their participation to Africa Hockey Federation. Tanzania, Sudan, Burundi, Seychelles, and Egypt did not commit to attend. Kenya and Uganda automatically qualified for the event proper, Hockey Africa Cup of Nations (ACN) slated for January 2022.
Kasasa now believes that if given three months training, the team will be in good shape to get medals at the continental tournament.
However, Uganda Ladies team struggled to match their Kenyan counterparts losing all their three games. They lost 11-00 on day one but tried to work on their defense on matchday two but lost 6-0 and also lost 5-0 in the final game on Sunday.
