NAIROBI, Kenya, May 17- In yester years, a Kenyan team earning a point against a North African opponent would be considered a huge result, but Gor left the Moi Sports Centre Kasarani on Wednesday night feeling the chills of two dropped points.
Malian officials were in charge of the clash with Mahamadou Keita tasked at the center and he was at subject of debate on some of the decisions he made.
The record Kenyan champions created numerous scoring opportunities, 10 attempts at goal. However, as head coach Dylan Kerr asserted at the end of the tie, maybe, they have some sort of curse in front of goal.
Playing with 10 men for almost half the tie, they restricted the visitors, finalists in the 2015 CAF Champions League to just seven efforts at goal, none of which troubled Boniface Oluoch.
The support in the stands, though not the same atmosphere as was witnessed over the weekend when they played Hull City was great, putting into perspective the heavy evening rains and the bumper to bumper traffic along Thika Super Highway that almost saw the two teams arrive late for the fixture.
Head coach Dylan Kerr had to change his mind on the team selection a few minutes to kick off, starting back Ernest Wendo ahead of Boniface Omondi.
Wendo didn’t have the best of his games, placing several missed passes especially in the opening stanza but Kerr had to explain after that the midfield enforcer had been suffering from flu and hadn’t trained for three days.
The USM Alger side seemed to have done their homework on the Gor attack and lead striker Jacques Tuyisenge was a marked man throughout.
The Rwandese forward was limited to just one shot on target which was saved by the keeper.
