JMJ Academy Successfully Defend COPA Nairobi Title, Qualify for Nationals alongside Western's Murhanda Boys

Reigning COPA Coca-Cola national champions, JMJ Academy, will have a chance to defend their title after they successfully retained the Nairobi provincial title at Nairobi Technical this past weekend.

JMJ won all but one of their matches to pip Makadara Juniors to the provincial title and ensure they qualify for the nationals for the second year in a row.

The mountain-view based side beat Victoria Sports 2-0 in their first match before claiming a tough 1-0 win over Nairobi East’s Kariobangi Sports to set up a tense finale against Makadara Juniors. Little could separate the two teams in both halves with the match ending in a 1-1 stalemate, a result that favored JMJ.

Last year’s losing finalists, Beijing Girls, grabbed the ladies title after winning all their three matches. Beijing won 2-0 against Kibra Queens and were even more generous in their next two matches dishing out a 6-0 and 4-0 thrashing to Golden Angels and Tia Hope Girls respectively. Kibra took the other slot reserved for Nairobi after mauling Golden Angels 5-0 and ending Tiah Hope’s campaign with a 4-1 dismissal.

Meanwhile a sublime hat-trick from Elvis Stambasi helped Murhanda Boys to a 3-1 victory over Webuye as they successfully defended the Western region title but more importantly, qualified for the national finals set for Nairobi mid next month. Murhanda who just about squeezed through to the finals after surviving late onslaught from Teso in their win 1-0 win in the semis were head and shoulders above Webuye. The new entrants struggled to get a grip of the game from the off and only scored a consolation goal in stoppage time through a Collins Lusaka penalty.

Shinyalu Girls took the ladies’ honors after expertly dismissing a hapless Ebusiloli Girls 4-0 in the final. Mildred Alusa and Sylvia Munyasia both netted a brace to earn Shinyalu their ticket to the nationals showpiece.

Young Muslim edged out Berlin FC 5-3 in post match penalties to lift the North Eastern title. The five qualifiers from this weekend will meet 11 other teams in the national finals slated for August. Rift Valley and Coast regions will host their provincial finals over the next two weeks.

And That's thesteifmastertake!!