Boniface Omondi‘s opening goal for Gor Mahia against Kakamega Homeboyz in the Charity Shield on Saturday at Kasarani Stadium was a beauty to behold.
With an hour of a tightly contested football duel gone and no goals scored, the honors fell on “Bajaj”, as Omondi is nicknamed, to break the jinx in the 61st minute, and he did so with panache.
The diminutive, fast-paced winger formerly of Nzoia Sugar FC received a corner kick from a rare taker, midfielder Alpha Onyango, and without the ball hitting the ground, connected it in with a furious first strike, which left Homeboyz goalkeeper Farouk Shikalo gazing to his left.
Commenting after the game, delighted K’Ogalo coach Johnathan McKinstry said that the goal was not a fluke but something they practice in training.
“We’re pleased with the goal we scored,” a grinning McKinstry told the press.
“It’s something we’ve been working on in training, and Bonny (Boniface Omondi) scored a few of those in training, so it wasn’t a fluke, trust me!”
Erick Ambunya leveled for Homeboyz in the 70th minute after pouncing on a spillage from a free kick, leaving McKinstry let down, but the former Uganda Cranes coach was quick to stand with his young keeper, Caleb Otieno.
“We’re also disappointed in the goal we conceded because you can’t attach any blame to the young Caleb (Otieno) in goal. I thought he had a great game.
The wall split; the wall has to stay strong, and the ball hit him in the stomach, leaving him with no chance.”
With two weeks to go until their opening game of the 2023–24 Football Kenya Federation Premier League (FKFPL) season against Sofapaka, the Irishman will be retreating to work on some of the weaknesses from the curtain raiser.
“There are things to work on, and some players are still a couple of weeks away from full fitness, but we take another step, and we’ll be ready for Sofapaka in two weeks time,” McKinstry concluded.
