Battle of two bests in Ulinzi and Sharks clash

When Ulinzi Stars host Kariobangi Sharks at Narok Stadium, they will be seeking to turn around their season full of draws and only three wins.

The Nakuru-based team, despite having had the best run at halftime, has only won three games at full time and drawn a record 9 times. Only Posta Rangers comes close with 8 draws.

Whereas Ulinzi has blown hot and cold, mostly cold, this season, their opponent in this fixture has had a good run and are within four points of league leaders Tusker FC.

They currently sit fourth with 31 points while Ulinzi is 11th with 18 points. Both teams have played an equal number of matches, 16.

Since Sharks got promoted to the top tier in 2017, the two teams have faced off eight times.

From the eight matches, Ulinzi have won three, Sharks have won one, and the rest have ended in draws. Apart from the first leg encounter this season that ended in a barren draw, the other draws have been scoring draws.

Surprisingly, Ulinzi have not won or lost at home to Sharks. They have drawn all their games against the William Muluya coached side at Afraha Stadium which is currently under renovations.

Given their drawing record this season as well as Ulinzi’s home record against Sharks, perhaps another draw would not be a far-fetched idea.

This fixture has only seen one red card, given to Ulinzi’s Omar Mbongi while playing away at Kasarani in 2019. Ulinzi lost that game 3-1. Sydney Lokale scored a hattrick. Enosh Ochieng’, now out on military duties, scored Ulinzi’s solo goal.

Kariobangi Sharks will be without a number of players due to injury including Daniel Sakari, Samwuel Olwande, Patrick Otieno, Frederick Alushula, and Patrick Ngunyi.

While Eric Kapaito will be looking to regain his goal-scoring form and extend his goal tally and propel the team to second, albeit temporarily, James Saruni will be looking to keep another clean sheet. It will be a battle of two of the best players on either end of the field, trying to do what they do best.

Both teams have two players a-piece who are on the verge of getting suspended for accumulation of 5 yellow cards.

Midfielders John Kago and Benard Ongoma are the players on the brink of suspension for Ulinzi Stars while Shaphan Oyugi and Boniface Onyango are on the list for Kariobangi Sharks.

Kariobangi Sharks coach has made it clear that they are not going into the game worrying about the results of other games, saying that they are going into the game competing against themselves.

"We are not looking at the statistics. We are competing against ourselves in that we want to display good football. We are just going to play our gameTusker's draw does not place us anywhere. We are fighting our own battle," Muluya told Mozzart Sport.