Kenya\u2019s Junior Starlets moved to the brink of a second FIFA U17 Women\u2019s World Cup appearance after a commanding 2-0 away victory over hosts South Africa in the first leg of their final qualification round tie on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Playing in front of a hostile crowd at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in Pretoria, Kenya took control early through Faith Boke, who broke the deadlock inside the first 20 minutes. <\/p>\n
South Africa pushed for an immediate response and were handed a golden opportunity when they won a penalty, but Kenyan goalkeeper Mishel Okoyo Ngono produced a crucial save to keep her side\u2019s advantage intact.<\/p>\n
Brenda Achieng doubled Kenya\u2019s lead in the second half, rounding off a disciplined and composed performance on the road.<\/p>\n
The result hands coach Mildred Cheche\u2019s side a significant cushion heading into the return leg at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on July 12. <\/p>\n
Kenya now need only avoid a heavy defeat to book their ticket to Morocco, where the 2026 tournament will be staged from October 17 to November 7.<\/p>\n
For Cheche, the achievement would mark a second World Cup qualification as head coach, having previously guided the Junior Starlets to their tournament debut in 2024 in the Dominican Republic. <\/p>\n
That experience of navigating young players through the pressures of a qualification campaign could prove valuable as Kenya look to close out the tie on home soil.<\/p>\n
South Africa, who eliminated Tanzania in the previous round, now face a difficult task of overturning the two-goal deficit in front of a Kenyan crowd. <\/p>\n
The Junior Starlets\u2019 defensive discipline throughout the qualifying campaign, including narrow away-goal progressions past Uganda and Namibia, has been a hallmark of their run to this stage.<\/p>\n
A positive result in Nairobi would confirm Kenya\u2019s return to the global stage and continue the momentum built under Cheche\u2019s guidance since the team\u2019s historic first appearance two years ago.<\/p>\n
The post Junior starlets on verge of 2nd World Cup appearance after South Africa win<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kenya\u2019s Junior Starlets moved to the brink of a second FIFA U17 Women\u2019s World Cup appearance after a commanding 2-0 away victory over hosts South Africa in the first leg of their final qualification round tie on Saturday. Playing in front of a hostile crowd at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in Pretoria, Kenya took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}