Charles Nyende
3 December 2011
Dar es Salaam — Kenya once again tumbled out of the Cecafa Tusker challenge Cup at the preliminary stage after losing 1-0 to Sudan in their last Group C match at the National Stadium on Saturday.
Mauwia Bashir’s goal in the 25th minute was enough to secure Sudan second spot in the group and qualification to the group stages together with table leaders Malawi.
Hosts and defending champions Tanzania sneaked into the quarterfinals as the second best third placed team despite losing 2-1 to guest side Zimbabwe who qualied second in Group A.
It was another disappointing exit for Kenya, a one time regional football giants, and coach Francis Kimanzi said he accepted responsibility.
“But I need to be honest. We need time to build and develop the team. We only had a couple of days to prepare for this tournament.
Deplorable performance
“I have hope in these players. They will get better and better but we need to prepare them regularly,” Kimanzi said at the post-match interview.
This was an out of sorts Harambee Stars, who came out initially to defend, an action they did not even do well.
The team showed little adventure preferring to boot the ball up field whenever they got possession.
The forward line of Stephen Waruru, Victor Ochieng and Bob Mugalia was completely ineffective, unable to even hold on to the ball against the big Sudanese defenders.
Kimanzi may have honourably defended his players but if that was the quality of the best players from the Kenyan Premier League then the country will need to search deeply for an answer to their recent deplorable performance at Cecafa.
Sudan, who qualified second in the group, dominated almost every facet of this encounter and should have gone ahead in the 14th minute but Yusuf Juma with plenty of space dragged his effort across goal.
Following wave after wave of attack Sudan were finally rewarded. Mauwia Bashir rising unchallenged in the Kenya box to head home a cross in the 25th minute.
Duncan Ochieng rescued Kenya from going further behind, charging out of his line to superbly keep out Ramadhan Agab, who should have scored in the 35th minute. Kenya began to show more adventure but with such a blunt strike force Sudan had little problems maintain their advantage going into the break.
Kimanzi introduced Kevin Kimani, who brought some urgency and enterprise into the Kenyan game.
They forced several consecutive corners in a sustained, desperate effort to draw level but only had a Yusuf Juma side netting and a Kimani header scooped out by goalkeeper Elmoiz Mahgoub to show for their efforts.
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