Kenya: Highly Unlikely That Country will Qualify for All Africa Games

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Francis Wadegu

28 June 2011

Kenya will almost certainly not be in Maputo, Mozambique for the All Africa Games in September after the national under-23 team suffered a devastating 5-1 defeat at the hands of neighbours Uganda at Nyayo Stadium, yesterday.

“I am not a miracle worker,” said team coach Leonard Saleh shortly after the embarrassing thrashing. Yet a miracle is what the Under-23 side will need to overturn the result when the two teams square it up in the return leg to be played in Kampala, Uganda in a fortnight.

The match having been called off on Sunday due to heavy rains finally got under way at midday yesterday and Kenya started brightly with Thika United’s Moses Arita missing a glorious chance inside the first five minutes when sent clear by Sofaka’s Humphrey Mieno. With a sizeable crowd rooting for either side, the players were more than eager to make a good showing. Kenya looked the better side in the opening exchanges with Tusker’s Paul Were dangerous coming from the left and testing Ugandan custodian Kimela Ali.

The Ugandans then drew first blood in the 31st minute through Hamisi Kizia, who skipped past Gor Mahia’s Musa Mohammed to beat KCB’s keeper Caleb Adola.

Kenya though restored parity within two minutes with Arita making up for his earlier misses as he latched onto a nice ball from Were and slotted the ball past Kimela. With their tails up, Saleh’s boys went looking for the lead but the Ugandan defence led by Sekuboba and Iguma Dennis held firm as the half ended 1-1.

A pep talk from experienced coach Bob Williamson must have worked wonders for Uganda as they dominated the second half. Their possession paid off in the 54th minute when Mike Mutyaba ran onto a one-two pass from Okwi Juma but was tripped by Eugene Asika in the penalty box. Mutyba dusted himself up to slot in the second goal from the spot. “There is no shortcut to get results in football. We as a country must make the commitment to follow the process. There is no way we could have had good preparations when we have only been in training camp for three to four days,” argued Saleh.

What followed there after proved beyond doubt that Uganda had indeed prepared adequately for the tie as they scored three more unanswered goals to take the game and the tie beyond Kenya.

Habir Kavukwa embarrassed Adola by scoring straight from a left footed corner to give the Younger Cranes a 3-1 lead in the 60th minute.

With two only three players on the bench, there was little Saleh could do to take the game out of the fire. Okwi completed a good move featuring Kizia and Oloya Moses to extend Uganda’s lead to 4-1. Kizia sealed the win with his second goal of the match to leave little doubt about who is really football’s top dogs in the region.”We have to take necessary risks. I take responsibility for the result because I had good players and I will continue to work to improve the team for the second leg,” confessed Saleh.

His Ugandan counterpart Williamson, the wily Scotsman, who is yet to lose a match against Kenya in six previous attempts was magnanimous in victory. ” We can’t underestimate Kenya despite the win. Nothing is decided yet as we have to finish off the job in Kampala,”

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