'Gamechanger' Brenda Achieng cameo works a charm in Junior Starlets party

As big calls go, Mildred Cheche’s decision to bring on striker Brenda Achieng as a second-half substitute will remain in the minds of Kenyans for quite a while, given the impact she had on a beautiful day for Junior Starlets on Sunday.

Coming off the bench in the 66th minute, Achieng left many - if not all - at Nyayo Stadium awe-struck, as she came up with a six-minute brace to lead the Kenya U17 squad to a comfortable 3-0 (5-0 on aggregate) win over neighbours Uganda in the second round of the 2026 FIFA U17 World Cup Qualifiers.

Brenda Achieng stars as Junior Starlets sail through

Just seconds into her only second appearance for the national team, the Ugunja Township player forced the visiting keeper to a save on the near post, and that only sent signals of what would be a remarkable afternoon for her.

The big moment came in the 86th minute, when she timed her run so nicely, before applying a simple touch to Joy Angela Valencia’s cross from the right and into the bottom corner.

2-0 and tie done, everyone assumed, but not these Kenyan girls, who keep showing up and uplifting an entire nation.

With 93:52 on the clock, Achieng received a midfield pass from Faith Boke, and the rest was pure art: one touch on the turn, another on the run to wheel away from one defender, a left touch to skip past another, a fall after meeting the challenge of the last defender, but a quick bounce off the turf to steady herself and bundle home from close range.

Add a sommer-sault to add the icing on the cake, and a perfect end to a game Kenya never looked like losing when Patience Asiko scored early in the first-half.

Achieng’s performance was rightly the first question Cheche had to answer on, given that the striker had to make due with a place on the bench after starting in the first-leg victory in Kampala.

“Bringing up Brenda as the game changer, it summed up everything,” a grinning Cheche, also a game-changer in her own right, said post-match.

“She is a really good player, and she is able to read the game well. She plays under a lot of pressure and I wanted to remove some pressure from her so that she is comfortable when coming in.

That’s why I brought her on in the second half when she is comfortable and not under any pressure. That’s why she was able to express herself even more.”

Achieng’s call was not the only one to bear almost impact fruits, as her replacement in the starting eleven - Asiko - scored after three minutes to effectively put the tie to bed.

On Asiko’s impact, Cheche said: “When we played in our away match, there were some gaps and we had to fill them in training.

Once we got a player like Asiko who could hold the ball for the others to join in, it made the team comfortable in attack and we got the first goal immediately.”

Kenya’s next hurdle to a place in the World Cup is a date with Cameroon, and you will bet your bottom dollar for another class act.