Kenya men’s national Roll Ball team reached the quarterfinal of the World Cup after a hard fought 5-4 win over highly fancied Argentina in a crunch round of 16 tie played at the Sheikh Russel Stadium in Dhaka Bangladesh on Tuesday morning.
Kenya came into the match on the backdrop of four wins from four in the Group F to scoop 12 points. After dispatching Sri Lanka 5-0 on Monday, they were given a walkover over Philippines to guarantee them top spot.
Denmark also qualified as group runners up with nine points but were eliminated after going down 1-3 to Iran in the knockout phase.
Kenya will now take on Latvia in the quarterfinal on Tuesday after the European side crushed Uruguay 8-0 in the round of 16 clash.
This should be a stern test for Kenya given that the Latvians had a tremendous run in the group stages of the tournament, picking up four wins albeit one being a walkover against Rwanda. They scored 33 goals in group three games and conceded only two goals.
In other results favourites India stormed into the quarters after a resounding 18-0 win over Benin. Pakistan also made it through following a 7-3 win over Belarus. Nepal eased past Ivory Coast to win 11-5 and hosts Bangladesh booked their ticket as they made light work of Chinese Taipei with a 12-0 result.
Bye to quarters
Defending women’s champions Kenya got a bye into the quarterfinals after Rwanda and Zambia were disqualified. This meant that there was no runner’s up from Group E to face Kenya, the Group A winners.
Kenya topped the group after an impressive spell of three wins that saw the team score 33 goals without conceding a single goal including a 7-0 win over England in their ultimate preliminary round match. Kenya will face bitter rivals and neighbours Uganda in the quarterfinals on Tuesday evening.
Uganda made it to the last eight after defeating Nepal 4-0 in the last 16. The last time the two teams faced each other at a major championship was at the 2016 Africa Championships in Uganda where Kenya prevailed 3-1 over the hosts.
Uganda topped Group H with wins over Senegal (2-1) and Chinese Taipei (10-0) respectively. “We will approach this match very seriously the two teams know each other well. We are aiming to score early goals and keep them under pressure. Our goal has been to retain the title and we remain focused on achieving it,” head coach Jacob Nyaudo said.
Lethal Angela Kithinji will again be again tasked with spearheading the offence. She has scored ten goals in the competition so far.
Fixtures (Tuesday)
Quarterfinal Men: Kenya v Latvia (11.30 a.m.), India v Zambia/Bhutan, Bangladesh v Nepal, Pakistan v Iran.
Women: Kenya v Uganda (3.15 p.m.), Argentina v Iran (2 p.m.), Senegal v England (3.15 p.m.), Latvia v India (2 p.m.).
