Stars all out to slay Chipolopolo as hunt for regional glory begins

• Kenya and Zambia clash in opening match of tourney at Nyayo Stadium

Kenya renew their rivalry with Zambia Saturday in the opening match of the 33rd Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup at the Nyayo National Stadium in what could very well be the Group “A” leader decider match.

Both sides have attracted the joint favourites tag, Kenya by virtue of their hosts status and regional strength, and Zambia as one of most consistent football nation in Africa.

The two sides met last year in Jinja in the group stage of the same tournament, cancelling each other 0-0. Both coaches then said they knew little of each other’s team but would approach the clash cautiously.

Kenya was then handled by Francis Kimanzi while Zambia had Frenchman Herve Bernard who is still in charge. Current Stars coach Twahir Muhiddin, with two decades of knowledge on regional football, said they will give the Angola bound Chipolipoli every respect they deserve.

“Zambia are a top class team and we will approach them cautiously. But we want to give a good account of ourselves. The players are up to the task and have promised not to let the fans down,” Muhiddin said.

His counterpart Benard said on arrival he expected tough opposition in Nairobi but will want to make a strong statement on Zambia’s football. This will be the first time Kenya are hosting the tournament since 1994.

But ominously for Harambee Stars, on the last two occasions Kenya hosted the tournament, in 1994 and 1989, they not only failed to win the tournament but also failed to make the final on both occasions.

But Muhiddin, who guided Harambee Stars to the semi-finals in 2004, was upbeat about the hosts’ chances of grabbing their sixth Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup title.

Kenya has maintained the bulk of the team that competed in the 2010 World Cup/African Cup of Nations qualifiers in an obvious gambit to win elusive and far between silverware.

“Considering the standards we showed against Nigeria, one of the top sides in Africa, I think we stand a big chance of winning the tournament. We have the big guns to finish the job,” Muhiddin said.

World Cup-bound Korea

That heavy artillery includes FK Banik Most speedy forward Patrick Oboya, Petro Atletico striker Allan Wanga, who scored a stunning goal in Kenya’s 3-2 World Cup qualifier loss to Nigeria two weeks ago, and 2008 KPL top goal scorer Francis Ouma of Portuguese side GC Tourizense.

Gor Mahia’s composed midfielder Peter Opiyo, who came out strongly in the latter stages of the qualifiers, is back from trials in German and will be directing traffic in midfield.

Zambia are using the tournament as build up for next year’s African Cup of Nations and have included seven players from the squad that played in the qualifiers.

They include China based forward James Chamange who recently scored a hat trick to help Zambia to a 4-1 demolition of World Cup-bound North Korea and defenders Dennis Banda and Emmanuel Mbala.