Kenya Women’s Football Team failed to match its 2011 showing at this years edition of the Homeless World Cup finishing fifth at the tourney that was held 21st-28 September 2024 in Seoul, South Korea.
Kenya had a blistering start with victories against Switzerland {3-0},India 3-1, Finalnd 7-0, Sweden 9-0, USA 5-1, Romania 1-0.There sole defeat was a 1-3 loss against Poland.
Kenya advanced to the quarter finals where they lost narrowly 5-4 to Egypt, the result that relegated them to tier two semi final where they faced Northern Ireland, France,and Romania.
The result failed replicate to replicate their 2011 performance where Kenya Women’s team emerged winners. Carrying a lean squad could be one of the reasons the team fell short however head coach Everlyne Anyango believes the team was already aware of the task ahead.
‘We remained strong the girls had the self belief spirit .The lean squad at some point affected us because we did not have numbers for substitutions .You need to keep on changing players for them to renergise ,we couldn’t do that but we kept on fighting’’ Coach Everlyne told Y254 TV’S Touchline.
Kenya travelled with 5 players out of at least full team of 10.
‘’We were supposed to go with a squad of 10,eight players and two officials we did try as much as possible to raise resources,what we got wasn’t adequate and we managed only a team of five. The girls did their level best and if we had a full squad we could have even finished first’’ Nancy Waweru Programmes director at Vijana Amani Pamoja remarked.
Goalkeeper Verah Adhiambo believes the performance of the team was commendable and will likely inspire players to reaching their goals.
‘’It was a long journey I began playing football in 2010 when I was six years and moved to Nairobi later and got supported by my uncle [Benedict Kiage} who was fully behind my football dream. Am very grateful to him’’,remarked Verah who is also a diploma student in Counselling Psychology at KCA University who studies remarked.
Homeless World Cup works with partners in respective countries with Vijana Amani Pamoja, an organization that uses sports for social change,being the Kenyan organization picked for the role. Homeless World Cup uses football to shape attitudes towards homelessness in the world.
Thirty eight nations took part in this years edition held across eight days of fantastic football,strong friendships and fun.