Kenyan side mocked Everton during hilarious pre-season penalty shootout | OneFootball

Pre-season plays a vital role in a club's season.

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Once the season begins, there is little time to work on new tactics and formations. So a month to get things right before the madness starts is very important.

Firstly, it gives players the opportunity to get their fitness back to competitive levels after their summer holidays. Several fitness tests will take place in the opening week to assess their levels.

Pre-season also allows any new signings to bed into the new squad and learn the philosophy and the way the club works.

But while all that is crucial to prepare for the upcoming season, there's another side to it - a commercial side.

Gone are the days where Premier League clubs would stay at home and host friendly matches throughout pre-season.

It's now imperative that clubs travel around the world for commercial reasons, marketing themselves and gaining supporters from different continents.

For example, in the summer of 2023, the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle, Fulham, Brighton, Brentford and Aston Villa are taking part in the Premier League Summer Series in America.

Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United have been on their own US tour, Liverpool headed to Singapore while Manchester City are in South Korea.

But travelling to unfamiliar territories doesn't always go to plan.

Clubs do everything they can to keep things as familiar as possible when travelling abroad but you never know what you're going to come up against.

Most clubs arrange friendlies against familiar opposition with the Premier League Summer Series involving clubs from England's top-flight facing each other. Meanwhile, Man Utd face the likes of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, Man City face Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid and Liverpool playing Leicester and Bayern.

Everton's friendly against Kenyan side, Kariobangi Sharks

But sometimes, clubs find themselves facing lesser-known opponents as part of their pre-season tour.

And that was the case when Everton travelled to Kenya on their 2019 pre-season. In truth, it probably wasn't Everton's decision to head to east Africa. Instead, it was likely a commercial requirement to compete in the SportPesa Cup where they would face Kenyan side, Kariobangi Sharks - with both clubs sponsored by SportPesa.

In front of almost 65,000 fans, Marco Silva fielded some big names in the first half against their Kenyan opponents.

The likes of Leighton Baines, Andre Gomes, Tom Davies, Morgan Schneiderlin, Ademola Lookman and Theo Walcott all started the match.

However, at half time, Everton found themselves 1-0 down.

A more youthful side took to the pitch in the second half and a free kick from Joe Williams levelled the score.

The match finished 1-1 but the event simply couldn't finish in a draw. Not with the prestigious SportPesa trophy to be won.

So we entered a penalty shootout - a penalty shootout that went down in history.

After a relatively normal and calm 90 minutes, nobody could have expected a pretty crazy penalty shootout.

Let's take you through what happened penalty by penalty...

What happened in the penalty shootout?

Everton's 1st penalty: Williams, Everton's goalscorer, is the first taker of the shootout. He drags his effort towards the bottom corner but the Kariobangi Sharks goalkeeper gets down low to his right and makes a terrific save. His celebration is just a little fist bump - although his side's bench and the home fans celebrate wildly. (0-0)

Kariobangi Sharks's 1st penalty: Jonas Lössl in the Everton goal clearly wants to win this penalty shootout and tries to psych out the penalty taker by rolling him the ball before being warned by the referee to stay on his line. It works as the taker blazes his effort miles over. (0-0)

Everton's 2nd penalty: Nathan Broadhead is next and the striker sends the goalkeeper the wrong way to give Everton the lead. (0-1)

Kariobangi Sharks's 2nd penalty: And this is where things start to go a little weird. Lössl again tries his mind games but it doesn't work on this occasion. The penalty taker takes a bizarre run-up, with three large steps back before quick feet and a placed finish into the corner. But then, in celebration, the scorer appears to mock Lössl by diving to the ground three times and then doing a backwards roll. He then shakes the hand of the goalkeeper and the referee. (1-1)

Everton's 3rd penalty: Josh Bowler steps up and goes straight down the middle with his left foot as the goalkeeper dives out of the way. (1-2)

Kariobangi Sharks's 3rd penalty: This run-up is very odd. It starts on the edge of the D - a long way back from the ball. He arcs his run, stops, stutters before striking the ball in off the post. Then comes the celebration... He hops around and then acts as if he's pulled his hamstring before strutting off into dance. The camera pans to the bench who are absolutely loving it. (2-2)

Everton's 4th penalty: Fraser Hornby stays cool under pressure and rolls the ball down the middle with the goalkeeper diving to the right again. (2-3)

Kariobangi Sharks's 4th penalty: It's a much more normal run-up this time as the taker pulls the ball into the bottom corner, sending Lossl the wrong way. The celebration this time is him pretending to play golf and, after striking the imaginary ball, putting his hand above his eyes to see how far it's gone. Again, his bench and the stadium love it. (3-3)

Everton's 5th penalty: Dennis Adeniran is the unfortunate villain as he sees his effort saved by the goalkeeper, who dived to his right again. The celebrations are wild with Kariobangi Sharks knowing if they scored their next kick, they would win the trophy. (3-3)

Kariobangi Sharks's 5th penalty: And the penalty shootout wouldn't be complete without the goalkeeper taking the final spot-kick himself. As the crowd reached fever pitch, he stepped up and, despite falling backwards, unconventionally smashed the ball into the roof of the net. He had no opportunity to do a bizarre celebration himself becausse the bench quickly mobbed and jumped on him as the entire stadium erupted. (4-3)

Incredible scenes.

VIDEO: Kariobangi Sharks take the p*ss out of Everton during shootout