Can Harambee Stars
decry that the fans did not fill Nyayo Stadium on Saturday for their crunch
African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia’s Chipolopolo? Absolutely No! Is
the nation fair in castigating Bobby Williamson and his charges for letting
them down? Definitely Yes!
On a sunny Sunday
afternoon at Nyayo Stadium, Kenyans swathed in the national team colors and
waving miniature flags started thronging the stadium as early as 2pm, two hours
before the eagerly-anticipated match. About thirty minutes before the game, the
stadium was already full to capacity as passionate Kenyans led by former
Premier, Hon. Raila Odinga optimistically and patiently waited for a Kenyan
win. When Southampton’s Victor Mugubi alongside Norway-based shot stopper,
Arnold Origi led the Stars out for the warm up, our expectations nearly budged.
A win was drawing closer!
Under 15 minutes, the
red-hot Michael Olunga got at the end of a Dennis Odhiambo’s inviting cross and
guided it past a hapless Kennedy Mweene in the Zambia goal! The stadium was
sent into a delirium! Barely minutes later, pacey Paul Were hobbled off the
pitch in obvious pain. The match was turned on its head! Tusker’s Noah Wafula,
arguably the most disappointing man on the day come on. Stars were left with
just the left flank functioning, as Ayub Timbe continued to impress. Noah
Wafula never got into the game and perhaps is horrible dribbles, terrible
decisions, missed chance and awful crossing in the second half epitomized our
struggles.
Our twin strike-force
of an aging and club-less Dennis Oliech and Olunga no longer functioned as the
latter cut out the figure of an isolated one-man in the final third. As early
as the first half, the rustiness and lack of fitness was showing all over
Oliech. Jesse Were, the leading goal scorer in the 2015 KPL was meanwhile
rotting on the bench, alongside Azam’s Allan Wanga. The two strikers had all
reasons to start ahead of Oliech but somehow Bobby Williamson never saw this.
Wanga’s late introduction for Oliech and Were’s non-appearance summed up a
rather clueless technical bench led by Williamson.
In the central defence,
Malaysia-based Lawrence Olum was the lost man. NO explanation can be offered
why Al-Tawoon’s Dennis “Cheche” Ochieng never partnered Brian Mandela. At the
heart of the midfield, Mugubi did not need another holding player in the mould
of Collins Okoth but rather an attack minded midfielder like Johanna Omollo,
who came on late in the second half. AFC Leopard’s Bernard Mangoli, one of the
best central attacking midfielders could have helped a lot, or even Al-Khartoum’s
Antony Akumu who was not even on the bench! Simply put, a chronology of
mistakes on the pitch made Stars lose a game that they had already won in the
first half! Olum, Oliech, Gatusso and Wafula were obvious mistakes on the pitch
as were Omollo, Mang’oli and Were on the bench.
Let us also not forget
that word had it that some players broke rules and partied with girls days
before the game. Weirdly, no disciplinary action was taken! The team was based
in the noisy Nairobi West area even as a serene and tranquil environment lay
idle at Safaricom Stadium Kasarani! But perhaps the biggest and obvious mistake
was in the one-week residential camp that the team had while Chipolopolo spent
more than a month in camp, preparing for the Nairobi clash. Yet we somehow
expected to gel and create a winning team! Sterile imagination from Football
Kenya Federation (FKF)! Apart from fans who perhaps believed it would be a
routine victory at Nairobi, those in the inside circles at FKF, the Harambee
Stars camp and attendants at the Mvuli Hotel in Nairobi West knew
all along that nothing had been done right to prepare for such a crunch tie! We
missed the opportunity to go top of our group, an opportunity that might come
to haunt us when the rest of Africa lands in Libreville, Gabon for the 2017
continental showpiece!
As we agonize our very own failure that we
confidently prepared, we should remember that “He who sows sparingly shall reap
sparingly”.
