The Ligi Ndogo Planets play away to former premier league side Mahakama in a match that is expected to be laden with fireworks, or an ironical twist. Both teams missed out of premier league promotion, in a heart wrenching last day date with destiny last year, the Planets by three points, Mahakama by two. Both teams have reason to be confident of promotion this year, having finished a close second in their respective leagues.Mahakama is buoyed by their strong midweek push to twenty points that saw them beat Green Berets and go joint top leaders with Kariobangi Sharks. The Planets are however more confident after the return of central defender, Salim Abdalla from injury. He is one of the pillars on which the Planet defense rests; the Planets have conceded only two goals in the six games that he has featured in and had suffered several blushes in his absence.
The two teams have never met before in a regular league. However their last exhibition game ended up dead at one a piece.
Mahakama have won two of their last league games, a 2-0 shocker of leaders Kariobangi Sharks followed by 1-0 close shave of army side,Green Berets in a redone fixture.
They finished a close second to last year’s winners Oserian in the 2011 FKL Nationwide league. They won 14 games, drew seven and lost nine of the 30 matches they played.The Mahakama offense scored 46 goals (third after Oserian,49 and KRA,47) but their defense let in 31.Last placed Real Kisumu let in 42.
They were solid at home losing only three games: to number 10, Nakuru All Stars(1-0),fourth placed Nairobi Stima (1-0) and surprisingly to number 13,Mathare Youth (1-0) in the league of 15 teams. They won nine times at home and drew three times.Less than half of their goals were scored playing at home.They scored 22 goals and conceded ten.They got 30 points at home, second only to Magongo Rangers (34).
They were quite impressive on the road winning five matches, four draws and six loses.They scored 24 goals and conceded 21.They were only second to Oserian FC who got 22.
This season they have garnered 20 points from 9 games; won six, tied twice and dropped one.They have scored 12 goals and conceded four,the four goals were all conceded in one match,a road hiding at the doorsteps of Sparkie Youth.
Before beating Berets,they had beaten Iron Strikers,Admiral and Kariobangi Sharks at home.They beat Mathare Youth and KSL Thola Glass on the road. They have drawn with Congo JMJ and Magongo Rangers both road games.
Their latest away win was at Mathare Youth on 17 March this year.The last time they lost at home was on 24 September last year,a 1-0 drop to Nakuru All Stars in the renamed FKL league.
Their biggest win at home so far has been this year’s 4-0 win over Iron Strikers.Their biggest win on the road was a 6-1 thrashing of Real Kisumu on 15 May 2011.They have never lost by more than one goal at home.The 4-0 lose to Sparkie Youth on April Fools’ day was the biggest joke-and their worst lose- ever played on them on the road.
Their longest winning streak was between 26 November 20011 and 17 March 2012 and spanned five games. Their consecutive lose to Nakuru All Stars at home and away is the only time they have lost twice to the same team.
They lost 2-1 to Oserian FC and 2-0 to Finlay on the same weekend in their longest consecutive string of loses. The last time Mahakama failed to score at home was on 25th September 2011 when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Real Kisumu.
In a league where more than 34% of the games have ended in draws and home teams scoring almost two goals per game, it would be interesting to watch two of last season’s most interesting teams go head to head.
Comparison of the last six games (latest game is on the right side)
W=win D=drawl=lost A=away H=home Games
Game results last six games
Planets | D | D | L | D | W | D |
Mahakama | D | W | D | L | W | W |
Scored goals last six games
Planets | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Mahakama | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Opponent scores last six games
Planets | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Mahakama | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Performance last six games
Team | W(H) | W(A) | D(H) | D(A) | L(H) | L(A) |
Planets | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Mahakama | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |