{"id":2540,"date":"2013-06-04T02:23:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T02:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2013-12-31T02:08:51","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T02:08:51","slug":"2540","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/2540\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Olali : Son of Gor Mahia legend, making waves in USA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gormahia.net\/images\/olali.jpg\" width=\"140\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Videographer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One look at Kevin Olali and most Kogalo fans of a certain era will immediately recognize who his father is as he bears a close resemblance to his father. Watching him play on the field and you will quickly realize that the apple did not fall too far from the tree.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Olali is an exciting winger with dazzling dribbling skills, incredible speed and an ability to take on defenders and leave them for the dead. As a winger, Olali is typically deployed on the left has scored several spectacular goals by slicing in from the left wing and unleashing powerful shots on goal in Arjen Robben like fashion.<\/p>\n<p>His father Sammy Owino was dubbed Kempes. He was a pivotal cog in the Kogalo side that reached the final of the Africa cup winners cup in 1979 and won the CECAFA cup in Malawi in 1980. At the time he was only 19. Many will tell you that Kempes along with Nahashon Oluoch &#8220;Lule&#8221; and Allan Thigo are the best players ever to don a Kogalo jersey. When in 1982 Kempes and Lule were offered football scholarships to attend Alabama A&amp;M University, many fans were heartbroken but wished them the best. The duo went to to succesful careers as college players. Alabama A&amp;M was ranked the top college team in the USA in 1984 with Lule and Kempes on board.<\/p>\n<p>Back to Kevin Olali, he was a member of the USA under 17 team in 2006. As a youth he played AYSES(Advanced Youth Soccer Education System). His youth coach was non other than his legendary father. This author has had the good fortune of watching Olali play as a 12 year old and immediately saw his potential. While at AYSES, Olali played a key role in steering AYSES to the North Texas State Cup Champions in 2007 and 2006. In the meantime, He played for Plano East High school. His ball control and technique is immaculate thanks to years spent in the AYSES youth system.<\/p>\n<p>After completing high school in 2009, Kevin followed in the footsteps of his father. He was recruited by the University of Southern Florida (USF) on full scholarship to play football (or soccer in American parlance). USF is one of the top ranked colleges in the collegiate competition (NCAA). Remember that Kempes had been recruited by Alabama A&amp;M. In 1984 he and Nahashon Oluoch steered A&amp;M to become the top ranked school in the NCAA.<\/p>\n<p>The NCAA is considered the top tier of college football in the USA. The majority of the Kenyan players who join USA colleges tend to join NAIA teams. Former Harambee stars Players like Bonaventure Maruti, Paul Oyuga, Eric &#8220;Cantona&#8221; Ochieng, Fred Siranga, Tom Odhiambo, Brian Ombiji, Eric Ongao, Gerald Origi. Vincent Kwarula, Lawrence Olum etc all played in the NAIA which is considired to be a tier below the NCAA. However that is debatable.<\/p>\n<p>Immediately he joined USF, Olali became a key player for the college. In his first year, he appeared in 13 of 21 games and finished with two assists. In his last three years at USF, he appeared in all the games. This author watched Olali twice while he was at USF. He dazzled opponents and fans with his speed and dexterity on the ball and his ability to beat defenders one on one. With his mesmerizing step over moves he often left defenders flat footed. Worth noting is that Olali always played with a chip on his shoulder as if he always had something to prove.<\/p>\n<p>Upon completing his career at USF in 2013, the 22 year old Olali was drafted by the Seattle Sounders who play in the MLS, the top tier league in the USA. The Sounders are the team who boast Nigerian star Obafemi Martins in their lineup. The Seattle Sounders are a mirror image of Gor Mahia. Not only do they wear green, but they have the best fan support in the MLS. In 2012, their average attendance was 43,000 per game, far ahead of second placed LA Galaxy whose average attendance was 23,000. Seattle Sounders fans are also the most raucous.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gormahia.net\/images\/sounders-fans.jpg\" width=\"483\" height=\"272\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Being drafted from a college team to the top tier USA league is an incredible achievement. To begin with, in 2013, the MLS was ranked as the 7th best league in the world by Sporting Intelligence. Secondly, it takes very special players to be drafted from college into the MLS. Most MLS teams today have youth teams and are relying less and less on college players.<\/p>\n<p>Of the Kenyans who have played college football in the USA recently, none were drafted to the MLS. Lawrence Olum however eventually manged to make it to te top tier league , the MLS after playing several seasons in a lower league (The USL).<\/p>\n<p>Now that Olali has been drafted, he will be hoping to impress coaches enough to stay in the MLS. Should he not succeed, he may consider moving to Europe as Oyuga and Maruti did when they moved to the Swedish league.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-send\" data-href=\"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/2540\/\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/2540\/\" height=\"240\" width=\"320\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/2540\/\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground:  !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Videographer One look at Kevin Olali and most Kogalo fans of a certain era will immediately recognize who his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}