Harambee Starlets play Cameroonians

Harambee Starlets face the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon in an international friendly match on Saturday at the Safaricom Stadium, Kasarani.

Starlets and Lionesses will be using the 4pm kick off match to prepare for the upcoming Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (Awcon) which will be held in Cameroon.

Starlets will also face the West Africans in the return leg on November 5 in Yaounde.

Lionesses are in Group A of the Awcon alongside Egypt, South Africa and Zimbabwe, while Starlets are in Group B that also has Mali, Ghana and defending champions Nigeria.

Starlets have had a rigorous schedule since they qualified for Africa’s premier women’s competition five months ago, but this will be the first time that they face a team which will also be competing at the continental showpiece.

The Kenyans played friendly matches against three European clubs in the COTIF tournament in Spain in July, before finishing second in the Cecafa Women’s Championship in Jinja last month.

Starlets jetted back Thursday from Morocco where they had camped for a week and played Wydad Casablanca and CAK Khenifra whom they hammered 8-1 and 6-1 respectively.
The Lionesses are also wrapping up their pre-tournament preparations that has seen them play their counterparts from Mali twice in the last month as well as a number of other league sides.

Starlets coach David Ouma is looking forward to the challenge against Cameroon, saying that it will be a good benchmark as they prepare for Awcon.

“We need more energy and a lot of speed because these are Cameroon’s strong points,” Ouma said.

“We couldn’t train on Thursday because we had had a long trip and that was bound to get the players even more fatigue, but I still believe that they are in good shape for the game since they have been working very hard in the last four weeks,” he said.

After their flight was cancelled due to logistical challenges on Thursday, Starlets took an alternative route back to the country and arrived in two batches; the first at 8.30pm Thursday and the other shortly after midnight.

Ouma will be without defender Elizabeth Ambogo for Saturday's match after she picked a knock during their weeklong camp in Morocco.

The Lionesses of Cameroon arrived on Friday evening and therefore had no time to feel the pitch.

In next month’s competition, Starlets will play all their group matches at the 20,000-seater Limbe Omnisport Stadium in Limbe, while Cameroon and their Group A opponents will play their games at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaounde.