It’s Ambira v Chavakali for COPA Finals

An Ambira player (in red) tussles for the ball with a Chavakali player. The two teams meet in the Copa finals

Nyanza’s Ambira High and Chavakali from Western Province will contest this year’s COPA Coca-Cola finals. Ambira made light work of the industrious JMJ Academy from Nairobi beating them 3-0 while a superb first half goal from Alvin Asunda was enough for Chavakali to send Rift Valley’s Mombwo packing.

Ambira and JMJ were meeting for the second time in the tournament after they had earlier settled for a compelling 0-0 draw in the group stages. However, Ambira had the fire power this time round using their aerial supremacy to their advantage.

Ambira started the match dazzlingly with twin brothers Nelson and Aaron Nyakha keeping the JMJ defence alert. After threatening to score for some time, Ambira finally got the breakthrough when lanky marksman Rodgers Oyaro nodded in his fourth goal of the campaign.

JMJ simply had no answers to Ambira’s organized play and the home team doubled their lead five minutes later when Nyakha and Oyaro exchanged neat passes before the latter breached JMJ’s goal for the second time in the game. The half ended 2-0 to Ambira.

After the interval, JMJ got a chance to maneuver a late comeback when they won a penalty in the 65^th minute courtesy of a foul on Dennis Njoroge. Andrian Otieno stepped forward but hit his spotkick weaved past the post. The lost penalty proved to be JMJ’s only chance in the second half and Oyaro punished them two minutes before time when he beat the offside trap to score Ambira’s third goal and his fifth of the campaign.

Ambira are yet to concede a goal in the tournament and this is good news for their keeper Abdul Jalin who might as well get the goalkeeper of the tournament award which will guarantee him a trip to Chelsea. With five goals, Rodgers Oyaro leads the scoring chart, tied with Lasalle’s Victor Mwangi but should the Ambira frontman get the back of the net in the Sunday final, he will join his teammate to Chelsea.

Ambira will go to the finals confident of a win against Chavakali who they gunned down 3-0 in the group stages. However, the boys from Western have been improving as the tournament advances and they shouldn’t be any pushovers.

Meanwhile, a Kisumu media select side lost 3-1 to a Luo Veterans side which was mainly composed of former Harambee stars players. The veterans scored two goals in the first half and the other on the second while Eric Ochieng' scored the consolation goal for the pundits who have been covering the COPA Coca-Cola national finals in Kisumu's Jomo Kenyatta stadium.

The Sunday final will be preceded by a third-place playoff match between Mombwo and JMJ.

The final will be screened Live by local TV station KTN from 11.30am.

And That's thesteifmastertake!!