{"id":452907,"date":"2011-07-04T08:47:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T08:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/04\/kenya-what-ails-country\/"},"modified":"2011-07-04T08:47:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T08:47:18","slug":"kenya-what-ails-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/04\/kenya-what-ails-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya: What Ails Country"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Pharis Kimaru<\/p>\n

2 July 2011<\/p>\n

\n

Nairobi \u2014 It has not been a good week for Kenya in terms of football at any level.<\/p>\n

First, the senior Harambee Stars side was beaten by Sudan 2-1 in the LG Cup a game that you would consider as worth little on paper but the truth is, Kenya played that game like it was a crunch qualifier.<\/p>\n

With the exception of Mariga on the bench, that could easily be the side that faces Uganda in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

The attack line up of Dennis Oliech, John Baraza and Kevin Ochieng was certainly not a light selection.<\/p>\n

It is embarrassing to say the least that Sudan have the football pedigree to waltz into town and beat the Stars on Kenyan soil.<\/p>\n

These are the same stars we hope will win their next two crunch qualifiers against Uganda away and Guinea Bissau here at home. There is no question of Sudan flunking their way to victory.<\/p>\n

Last weekend they beat Kenya fair and square, the second goal was a thing of beauty, John Njoroge was left for dead by the Sudan forward who sent an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net and that was all she wrote for the Harambee Stars. Dennis Oliech was tireless upfront for Kenya and his display was rightly rewarded with Kenya’s face-saving goal.<\/p>\n

(He was also named man of the match but that was totally unnecessary in my opinion.)<\/p>\n

Mariga was brought on to add some bite to Kenya’s attack in the second half but even he could not unravel the Sudanese back four. Oboya also came on but he could also not deliver a match turning performance.<\/p>\n

Collins Okoth was exceptional in midfield while Mulama had a decent match although he was wasteful with set pieces particularly in the latter stages of the game. His delivery particularly in a premier league game for Sofapaka is much better.<\/p>\n

This gave the opposition an expected morale boosting win and excellent preparation for the Uganda game but the expected performance did not materialise and yes, we can say it was just a meaningless friendly but I think Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno will know better than that and he will be thankful that he has time to work on tweaking things before the trip to Uganda.<\/p>\n

That was the senior side. The U-21’s also had an outing last weekend against Uganda in a qualifier for the All Africa games.<\/p>\n

Uganda scored first but Kenya equalised, just like in the senior game, and then all hell broke loose. Kenya conceded another four goals and the Ugandans left Kenya with a 5-1 away goal advantage. Kenya needs to go to Uganda and win by cricket scores to progress.<\/p>\n

First off, I am not convinced that those players in the U-21 side are the best players of that category available in Kenya particularly given FKL’s aversion to serious work under which category both scouting and talent development fall.<\/p>\n

This squad I hear was also scrambled together just days before the game yet another example of FKL’s aversion to work, and that alone is worth the score line and the uproarious laughter that I know rung out across Uganda when folks over there heard the news and saw the goals on TV.<\/p>\n

The problem with Kenya is that we think football players will materialise after being developed by angels and perform at the highest level for our national team.<\/p>\n

Until we stop scrambling teams together instead of looking and nurturing talents in the U-17 and U 21 teams, we will continue to have a national team with two good players and a supporting cast. I am just saying.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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See original article:
\nKenya: What Ails Country<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pharis Kimaru 2 July 2011 Nairobi \u2014 It has not been a good week for Kenya in terms of football at any level. First, the senior Harambee Stars side was beaten by Sudan 2-1 in the LG Cup a game that you would consider as worth little on paper but the truth is, Kenya played that game like it was a crunch qualifier. With the exception of Mariga on the bench, that could easily be the side that faces Uganda in a matter of weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nKenya: What Ails Country - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/04\/kenya-what-ails-country\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Kenya: What Ails Country - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Pharis Kimaru 2 July 2011 Nairobi \u2014 It has not been a good week for Kenya in terms of football at any level. 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