....Kenya knock Ghana out of youth event
Kenya's under-17 soccer team yesterday lost 2-1 to Ghana's Starlets, but still qualified for the next round of the Africa Youth Championship on a 3-2 aggregate.

The Kenyans had won 2-0 in the first leg in Nairobi two weeks ago. Ghana needed three clear goals for victory but Kenya's goal put paid to their hopes.

Yesterday's match was played in Ghana's gold mining town of Obuasi.

The Kenyan lads will now meet either Tanzania or Ethiopia in the next round of the youth qualifiers.

Ghanaian football is currently going through a very lean patch.

The latest setback came from the ongoing Africa Under-20 championships in Burkina Faso where the country's team at this level, the Black Satellites, failed to qualify for the Fifa World Youth Championships after losing 3-2 to Cote d'Ivoire in their last group match. Earlier, Ghana had drawn against Morocco and Egypt.

Before that, there was the loss of the women's team to Nigeria in the final of the Africa Women's Championships and the heart-breaking defeat of Asante Kotoko in Kumasi by Wyadd Casablanca in the final of the African Cup Winners last December.

In the African Youth Cup in Burkina Faso, Ghana crashed out after losing 2-3 to Cote d'Ivoire in the final group match.

The result means the Black Satellites will miss the Fifa World Youth Championship for only the second time since 1995.

Ghana went into the game against Cote d'Ivoire needing to win to qualify for the semi-finals but instead they put up a lackluster display.

The team was also not helped by the injury to midfielder Razak Ibrahim, who limped off under just thirty minutes with a hamstring injury.

Starlets miss the boat

Graphic -- IT WAS unbelievable and painful as hundreds of football lovers left the Obuasi Len Clay Stdium crestfallen after the Starlets' 2-1 victory over Kenya in the African Championship qualifiers yesterday.

Kenya's youthful team, the Harambee Babies scored a late goal to oust the Starlets from the Under-17 football qualifying tournament after leading the visitors 2-0 as at the 98th minute.

The Starlets, conscious of their 0-2 deficit from the first leg, entered the field with determination, zeal and persuit to cancel the Kenyans' lead and until the 90th minute, everything pointed to a penalty shoot-out.

The tall Kenyans kicked off and immediately settled to pick their rhythm but the Starlets managed to push the action into their opponents territory and won an early penalty from a goalmouth melee in the 10th minute but Prince Tagoe's kick was blocked by keeper Francis Odhimabo in posts for the Kenyans.

The fans rooted for the Starlets, however, neither side could silence or set the stadium alight, till the half ended goalless.

Coach Silas Tetteh and his technical team did everything possible during recess and it worked to perfection.

The coach brought on Shaibu Yakubu and Owusu Sekyere for Prince Tagoe and Douglas Nkrumah respectively. At the same minute, the visitors made two quick changes but the odds favoured the Starlets when they opened the scores.

In the 47th minute, Ebenezer Baah put the smiles on the faces of Ghanaians as he clinched the opener with a powerful shot which caught the visitors' keeper off guard.

The goal shocked the Kenyans and before they could recover , substitute Shaibu Yakubu planted the second goal in the net in the 53rd minute.

From then on, it was all cheers for the Starlets with fans anticpating the third goal. At that stage, the visitors made another substitution to uplift their game, but the Starlets kept on fighting for the winning goal. Luck failed the Kenyans when in the 70th minute, they missed a chance to redeem the deficit.

However, in injury time, Joseph Maina flicked the ball past a Starlets attacker for his mate, Anthony Kahindi to shoot past goalkeeper Andoh to give them a 3-2 aggregate to the next stage of the competition.