Madaraka All Stars beat Bangers FC 1-0 to win the Nairobi region qualifiers for the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s five-aside qualifiers where the top four finishers in the tournament made it through to the national final phase. The tournament, played at the Public Service Sports Club on the weekend saw 64 teams battle for the slots to the final in hotly contested 5-a-side football clashes.“We have trained consistently and it is a well-deserved win. But we have to give credit also to the individual brilliance of our team mate Alvin Arocho who kept his cool and delivered the wins when it mattered most,” said Selassie Atrash of Madaraka All Stars after his team’s victory.He continued, “We will keep training this week and try and improve on our goal conversion in attack. We will, however, not change our strategy going into the national final.” In 2018, part of the Madaraka All Stars squad including captain Atrash and talisman Kristian Babz, then playing for Capital-FM FC, represented Kenya strongly at the World Finals in Praia Grande, Brazil. They advanced out of a tough pool beating Japan, Belgium and drawing against Argentina only losing in the round of 16 to South Africa. Over Overhead weekend, the third and fourth-place playoff was a contest between Total Disaster FC who narrowly edged One Two TV FC 1-0 in a match that had the fans on the edges of their seats all through.The tournament continues to prove exciting for the players and fans because of its unique format. When a team scores a goal the opposing team loses a player and the games are called after 10minutes of play with the winner being the team with the most players on the pitch or the one that has outplayed them all.In the event of a deadlock after 10 minutes, the match is decided by a one on one golden goal contest.The ultimate prize at National Final will be a ticket to the World Finals for one of these teams to take on the best teams from across the globe, where Neymar Jr will personally crown the champions in the women’s and mixed categories. In addition to that, they will also receive a once in a lifetime opportunity to play a match against Neymar Jr himself and his hand-picked selection of world class teammates.The eight teams that will now battle it out in what promises to be an epic display of football at the National Final on Saturday 30th October are Talent FC, Fire Rangers FC, Serekal FC, FC Shells, Madaraka All Stars, Bangers FC, Total Disaster FC and One Two TV FC.
