{"id":3980,"date":"2014-02-20T03:14:15","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T03:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/?p=3980"},"modified":"2014-02-20T03:15:31","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T03:15:31","slug":"gor-mahia-vs-city-stars-preview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/gor-mahia-vs-city-stars-preview-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Gor Mahia vs City Stars preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 326px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gormahia.net\/images\/team-celeb-gabon.jpg\" width=\"326\" height=\"217\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Players celebrate after winning the shootout in Gabon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>courtesy of the Standard<\/p>\n<div>Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Gor Mahia begin their title defence against Kawangware based side Nairobi City Stars at City Stadium today. The match comes four days after the KPL champions edged out US Bitam of Gabon from the preliminary stage of the champions league and this should give them the motivation to start well. On their way to winning last year\u2019s title, Gor Mahia chalked up 17 wins and know very well that to retain the title, they have to either win the same number of matches or add one more and in this case every match will count.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The KPL champions may be tired after a grueling battle in West Africa and this could force coach Bobby Williamson to juggle around his squad giving those who did not travel an opportunity to play. This means that veteran striker Patrick Oboya may finally have a chance to lead the team\u2019s quest for goals upfront.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Your are here \u00bb Home \u00bb Football Title holders K\u2019Ogalo begin league defence with City Stars clash Updated Wednesday, February 19th 2014 at 23:51 GMT +3 0 inShare By GILBERT WANDERA City\u2019s Jimmy Bagaye dribbles the ball during their training last month. [PHOTO: DENNIS OKEYO] Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Gor Mahia begin their title defence against Kawangware based side Nairobi City Stars at City Stadium today. The match comes four days after the KPL champions edged out US Bitam of Gabon from the preliminary stage of the champions league and this should give them the motivation to start well. On their way to winning last year\u2019s title, Gor Mahia chalked up 17 wins and know very well that to retain the title, they have to either win the same number of matches or add one more and in this case every match will count. The KPL champions may be tired after a grueling battle in West Africa and this could force coach Bobby Williamson to juggle around his squad giving those who did not travel an opportunity to play. This means that veteran striker Patrick Oboya may finally have a chance to lead the team\u2019s quest for goals upfront. It is however, unlikely that Williamson will bench his top striker Dan Sserunkuma for the entire match and the Ugandan is therefore likely to feature at some point.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In goal, Jerim Onyango is sure to start after a great show in Gabon during which he saved four penalties in a move that has instantly raised his profile among the club fans. The Gor Mahia defence look steady with Israel Emuge, Haron Shakava and David \u2018Calabar\u2019 Owino incharge. Godfrey Walusimbi playing his first match in the KPL is a great addition on the flanks and he has already proved he is an asset with a great show in the past two matches. City Stars understand the importance of starting well after they barely survived last season. The team was placed in 14th place after picking only seven wins.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>City Stars have signed some veteran players like George Midenyo, Kevin Ochieng in addition to the likes of Jimmy Bagaye and Justus Basweti. This is also the first match in charge for City Stars coach Robinson Ofwoku who knows that he must start well to make an impression at the struggling club. Match starts 3pm.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\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\/gor-mahia-vs-city-stars-preview-2\/\"\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>courtesy of the Standard Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Gor Mahia begin their title defence against Kawangware based side Nairobi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-3980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}