Five out of six wins in the month of September 2019 coupled with a number of key performances including for clean sheets earned Nairobi City Stars the team of the month award according to a report released by Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on Wednesday 23 October 2019.
The five wins and one draw saw City Stars assume pole at the end of the first month of the league with an unbeaten streak with 16 points, one ahead of Bidco United.
Simba Wa Nairobi won two of its three home games – the season opener against Shabana (2-0) and Northern Wanderers (6-0) plus all three away games; 1-0 over Bidco United in Thika, 2-1 over Coast Stima in Mombasa and 3-2 over Kenya Police in Naivasha. Adding on to the wins was a barren draw against Vihiga United in week three.
With 13 goals scored, City Stars was second best to Nairobi Stima who notched in 15. Their 8-0 win over Northern Wanderers overshadowed City Stars 6-0 win over the same outfit hence the tilt.
On the defense side City Stars was second best after conceding twice, one more than Bidco United.
Ultimately, the team performance in September led to a number of personal awards.
Tactician Sanjin Alagic from Bosnia and Herzegovina, in just his first season in Kenya, was named the Coach of the month.
With four assists each, Anthony Muki Kimani was listed as the best goal provider alongside Nairobi Stima’s Moses Ouma. Teenager Vincent Otieno had three assists.
With four clean sheets keeper Levis Opiyo was second best to Bidco’s Daniel Odiwuor who kept his goal clean in five games. He tied with Ushuru’s Boniface Baraza.
Gambian striker Ebrima Sanneh top scored with five goals alongside Dennis Wafula of Vihiga United.
The downside of the stats for September were yellow cards where City Stars was rock bottom on the fair play table with a record haul of 13 and one red card.
“Save for fair play, the stats are quite impressive. We hope the team can register the same or even better in weeks to come to maintain their top performance,” said club CEO Patrick Korir
He went on to thank FKF for the new initiative of coming up with monthly reports as it spices up performances by teams.
“This is a first and we hope the Federation can maintain this kind of reporting throughout the season. We will support them as it is a very good initiative.” he said
Summary of FKF NSL September 2019 report
Outstanding performance-Team: Nairobi City Stars
Outstanding performance – Coach: Sanjin Alagic
Goal Assists: Anthony Kimani (4)
Top scorer: Ebrima Sanneh (5 – joint)
Best Attack: Nairobi City Stars (2nd)
Best defense: Nairobi City Stars (2nd)
Clean Sheets – Players: Levis Opiyo (2nd)
