Ochieng reveals how City Stars took Ingwe to the cleaners on Saturday

By Gilbert Wandera
Nairobi City Stars coach Gideon Ochieng believes his team’s 3-0 win over league leaders AFC Leopards is the turning point for a club that  had stayed at the bottom of the standings for much of  the first leg.

Speaking on how his side plotted  the downfall of Leopards, Ochieng said it all started two weeks ago when his side went down 2-1 to Gor Mahia.

“Our come-back started during the match against Gor. We strongly believed we would collect all three points, but were let down by poor officiating. However, we did not give up and knew we could still do it  against Leopards a week later,” he said.
Ochieng added: “One thing that worked for us is the decision to put the ball down. We knew Leopards have tall and big players and prefer to keep the ball in the air. We could not match them and so decided to keep the ball on the ground.”
He paid special tribute to Ugandan import Dan Sserunkuma, who scored two goals for playing his role well.

City Stars players celebrate beating Leopards in a KPL match at Nyayo Stadium on Saturday. [Photo:Stafford Ondego/Standard]

Pulled aside

“In the first half, Sserunkuma found it difficult to penetrate the Leopard’s defence and so we had to change strategy in the second half. I pulled him aside at half time and specifically instructed  to play in space.
“I told my midfielders to put for him balls in space and because he was faster than his markers we got the two goals,” explained Ochieng.

He further revealed that the decision by Leopards to use only two midfielders worked against them because it allowed City Stars to dominate.

“The strategy they had was that Martin Imbalambala would push up to support the midfield, but when I realised this, I specifically assigned him a marker who kept him in his place and so Leopards always lacked that support.
“It allowed my side a free reign in midfield as we won more balls,” he said.

Ochieng said the win is a great motivation for his side and he can afford to think of a top eight finish at the end of first leg.