Junior Starlets fight for dear life against Cameroon
Kenya's Joyangela Valencia (left) tussles for the ball Nde Yvana Wendji of Cameroon during their Fifa Under 17 World Cup qualifying match at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on April 20, 2025.
Kenya’s Junior Starlets will be fighting for dear life against Cameroon today when the two teams face off in the second leg of their third-round match of the 2025 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers at Olembe Stadium in Yaounde.
The match will kick off at 9pm (Kenyan time). The hosts enjoy a 1-0 advantage heading to tonight’s match following last Sunday’s slim win courtesy of Tiwa Milong’s goal in the 13th minute at Nyayo National Stadium.
The aggregate winner will qualify to participate in the 9th edition of the tournament which is scheduled to take place in Morocco from October 17 to November 3.
To qualify, the Kenyan girls, coached by Mildred Cheche, must score at least two goals tonight, and avoid conceding.
The team arrived in Yaounde on Wednesday evening, and the players were scheduled to have a feel of Olembe Stadium pitch at 9pm last night.
Cheche is likely to field the same line-up of players she fielded in the second half of the first leg in Nairobi, hoping to ride on Kenya’s fast forwards who troubled Cameroon on Sunday.
She is likely to start with goalkeeper Velma Abwire and defenders Elizabeth Ochaka, Lorine Ilavonga and Judith Nandwa. Cameroon, coached by Joseph Ndoko, are aiming for a third appearance at the Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup, and will be hard to beat at home. The West Africans will start tonight’s match as favourites. They have recently won African championship titles in 2016 and 2018, and qualified to play at the World Cup in the same years.
Kenya will take comfort in the fact that Cameroon lost 3-1 to Uganda on February 9 last year for a 4-2 aggregate loss and were eliminated from the 2024 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
In the first leg against Kenya, Cameroon relied on long, high passes, exploiting their height advantage to win aerial duels, including scoring from a corner kick.
Starlets, who made their first appearance at the Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup last year in the Dominican Republic, played Cameroon for the first time last Sunday.
The team has not lost an away qualifying match, having drawn 0-0 with Ethiopia and defeated Burundi 3-0. Both matches were played at Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa last year. Elsewhere, Nigeria and Zambia, who both participated in the last World Cup along with Kenya, are in comfortable positions as they enter their respective return leg ties.
Nigeria has a commanding 4-0 lead over Algeria and will battle in the return leg at Mustapha Tchaker Stadium in Blida, Algeria on Saturday
At Stade de Kegue, Lome in Togo, Zambia who have a 2-1 advantage over Benin will also be in action on Friday as Côte d'Ivoire who narrowly won 1-0 against Guinea in their first-leg encounter last weekend will face Guinea at Stade Mamadou Konate, Bamako Mali on the same day.
As hosts, Morocco have automatically qualified for the World Cup. Five nations, including hosts, will represent Africa at the World Cup. The 2025 World Cup will see an increase in teams to 24 nations from the present 18 teams.
Morocco will be the first African country to host the tournament and will host the annual tournament for five years in a row, beginning from 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2029.