Malkia Strikers players celebrate a point against Puerto Rico during the quarter-finals of the FIVB Challenger Cup match in Manila, Philippines on July 4, 2024. [KVF Media]
Kenya’s Malkia Strikers will be looking to exit the 2025 FIVB World Championship with heads high when they take on Vietnam in their last Group G match on Wednesday at the Saphan Hin 4000 Seat Municipal Stadium in Phuket, Thailand.
The Kenyans hopes of advancing to the round of 16 were crashed when they lost their second pool match to Poland currently ranked third globally on Monday.
Despite putting up a spirited fight against the Poles, Kenya fell 3-1 (25-17, 15-25, 25-15, 25-14) to bow out of the title contest.
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Veronica Adhiambo once against starred for Kenya with 18 points while Belinda Barasa stepped up her performance with 12.
They began their campaign with a straight sets 25-22, 25-8 and 25-23 loss to Germany on Saturday and needed to defeat Poland to revive their hopes of reaching the knockout stage.
Even so, Malkia Strikers coach Geofrey Omondi that the team had improved though they lost.
“There was a lot of improvement, coordination, teamwork and our skill development has also gone up. That’s what enabled us to play and even pick a set from Poland the world number three and we are hoping to do better,” Omondi said.
Going into today’s clash against Vietnam the tactician who led Kenya Pipeline to reclaiming the league trophy and continental bronze said that they will be out to improve.
“We will push more and get better results. I rarely get satisfied when I don’t get the results I want, I would not say that I’m so happy because I still need to win. We at least need to win a game in the World Championship or two. We are still not where I want us to be but we want a win from them,” he added.
On their Vietnamese opponents, Omondi revealed that they play a first game and are also very industrious on court and so they needed a game plan that would counter them.
“They play a fast game and also move a lot on the court and therefore we need to work on our services to destabilise their offence and also tighten our defence both front court and back court so that we are able to contain their speed and movement,” Omondi said.
Omondi who is eyeing his first win with the national outfit is well aware of what their Vietnamese opponents can do having played them in friendlies as part of their preparations for the global showdown.
Before heading to Thailand, Kenya was in Hanoi, Vietnam where they trained for some days.
They played two friendly matches against their hosts losing 2-1(25-15, 20-25, 25-20) and 4-0(25-21, 25-14, 25-19, 25-19).
During the 2022 World Championship, Kenya registered a straight sets win against African rivals Cameroon while their lone 2018 victory was against Kazakhstan.