Marked for Dennis Olunga
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Aug 2046
No end in sight to Ulinzi Stars's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ulinzi Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 Aug 2046
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sasha Gomeniuk commits to Ulinzi Stars for another 2 years.
Squad6 Aug 2046
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ulinzi Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings6 Aug 2046
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad6 Aug 2046
Dennis Olunga pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings6 Aug 2046
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jun 2046
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ulinzi Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jun 2046
Words at Ulinzi Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulqodri Habeeb is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match9 Jun 2046
APS Bomet left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jun 2046
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Jun 2046
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Francis Ouma, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings11 Jun 2046
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 May 2046
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 May 2046
Dennis Olunga, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 May 2046
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ulinzi Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 May 2046
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ulinzi Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2046
Words at Ulinzi Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulqodri Habeeb is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces28 May 2046
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Dennis Olunga has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings28 May 2046
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings28 May 2046
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 May 2046
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Duncan Kagere, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jan 2046
A knee injury of the worst kind for Moses Onyango
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ulinzi Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Jan 2046
Dennis Olunga: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ulinzi Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Jan 2046
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ulinzi Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.