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Rooney Onyango scored a brace playing centre forward during Gor Mahia's CAF Champions League victory over El Merreikh, raising questions whether he could take over from Benson Omala.
When Gor Mahia beat El Merreikh 5-1 in the second leg of their preliminary round of the 2024/25 CAF Champions League at Nyayo Stadium last Sunday, it was under the most unorthodox means imaginable.
The week before, Gor Mahia had lost 1-0 to the South Sudanese side away, and knew that they needed to put their best foot forward in the return leg on home soil to seal a date with the dreaded record African champions Al Ahly to determine who will be playing in the group stages of the competition next season.
K’Ogalo never flinched, and even if they went a goal down very early on in the game, they went all guns blazing to beat them quite convincingly in a game that could have seen them win by a wider margin.
Goals by Chris Ochieng, Alpha Onyango, Alphonce Omija and a brace by Rooney Onyango, were enough to see them through, and it is more convincing that they won by such a wide margin without having to rely on a go-to goalscorer, with Benson Omala moving to Lebanese side Al Safa two weeks ago -even though that move has hit its own snag.
The last two goals, both scored by Onyango, saw him score from an unusual centre forward position. Onyango, a right-back by trade, has shown his capabilities in an attacking sense mostly for national team Harambee Stars, where head coach Engin Firat has preferred to play him as a right winger, and even as left winger on certain occasions.
You can understand the reasoning. Rooney Onyango is very good at influencing the game in the final third with his excellent crossing capabilities. Since making his debut for the side last October, he has gone on to make four goal contributions in seven caps for the side.
When he burst on to the scene at Wazito FC under the tutelage of Francis Kimanzi, both he and Levin Odhiambo -now his team-mate at Gor Mahia - wowed fans with their tendency to bomb forward and then whip dangerous crosses into the danger zone for prospective scorers to get on the end of.
After he left Wazito, he spent a year in Dubai, where he redefined his game even further, and by the time he was back, he looked more mature.
He knows when to drift into midfield and try and create overloads with his ability to receive the ball on the half turn and drive it forward, or seeking to combine with teammates to take out the opposition.
When head coach Engin Firat was asked why he prefers playing Rooney Onyango as a winger instead of his original right-back role, he insisted that pushing him backwards would be like “driving a Porsche with the handbrake on”.
“Rooney has a lot of offensive qualities which he has started learning quickly in the national team.
“He is clearly an offensive player and that’s the position I will be using him in.”
New Gor Mahia coach Leo Neiva seems to agree with the Turk. Since taking over, he has used him in advanced positions, specifically the right hand side with a right-back such as Philemon Otieno or Paul Ochuoga behind him, but against El Merreikh, he spent the last 15 minutes of the game as a number nine and scored two goals.
Neiva hailed the importance of having versatile players for how he wants to implement his ‘samba style’ football.
“He started the game as a winger…interchanging with Ochuoga. Then in the second half, the opponents put a very physical player on Ochuoga’s flank and so I asked him (Rooney) to drop back because he could deal with him.
“In the second half, I put him at no. 9 because he is a very amazing player…he is a utility player who can fit anywhere. And, as you can see he scored two goals,” the gaffer said.
Let us analyse how he played candidly to see how he fared:
In the first half, Onyango played as a right winger who would drift into narrow positions with Ochuoga overlapping him. In situations where Ochuoga would invert, Onyango would drift wide, and this helped create the second goal by Alpha Onyango which he assisted.
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Rooney showed this again in the second half before being taken to centre forward. He received a pass from deep and then whipped a cross into the box for Chris Ochieng to get on the end of, but he just missed the zipping ball.
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However, in the second half, Neiva decided to bring on Philemon Otieno at right back, hooking off Ochuoga and shifted the formation to a 4-4-2, with Rooney, still playing as a winger, drifting further into a shadow striking position to help overcrowd the midfield, with El Merreikh opting to push high into a mid-block set-up.
Within minutes, he was became a threat, playing on the shoulder of the last defender, and this moment where he received an exquisite pass from Austin Odhiambo should have seen him score a goal within seconds.
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In the 80th minute, he became the lone centre forward as Neiva opted to add another line-breaking passer in Lawrence Juma, and both he and Odhiambo had loads of fun spraying passes to Rooney Onyango as well as Samuel Kapen, the other substitute who provided two assists.
For Rooney’s first goal and fourth for Gor Mahia, it was after a neat interchange between Odhiambo and Kapen which resulted in Rooney getting the ball in acres of space before placing it nonchalantly into the back of the net in a Thierry Henry-esque manner.
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For the fifth and final goal, Juma threaded a through ball into the path of Samuel Kapen on the right flank before cutting it back to Rooney again, who tucked it home.
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Although Gor Mahia are in the hunt for a striker since Omala’s departure, they may well have a replacement in-house in Rooney.
Amidst speculation over his future, which initially saw his passport withheld by the Italian Embassy, with another reported move to Lebanon hitting a snag before they returned it to him, it may be worth staying at the club one more season and being tested in these advanced positions in order to fully unleash the “Porsche” that he truly is.
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