Poor Kenya ‘almost out’ of 2016 Rio Olympics

It will take a miracle for the national Under-23 football team to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The team lost again, on this occasion by 3-0, to Botswana in an African Nations Championship-cum-Olympic qualifier at the Lobatse Sports Complex on Friday evening.

This result leaves Kenya on the verge of elimination from both competitions.

The starlets require a win by four clear goals in the return leg match on May 8, to advance to the next stage of the qualifiers.

This four-month-old team lost the tie during an eight minute spell moments after the restart. Two quick fires goals from Kabelo Seakanyeng and Omaatla Kebatho in the 49th and 53rd minutes provided the killer punch.

Forward Joseph Wanyonyi was sent off for an altercation late in the game, before the Young Zebras capped this victory with a fine individual goal from Kebatho with four minutes of regulation time remaining. 

Despite the result, John Njoroge and Collins Shivachi have been singled out for praise on their performances by a section of the Botswana media.

This result comes in the wake of yet another poor result by the same team at the hands of Egypt in the All Africa Games qualifiers last month. Kenya was eliminated from the competition following a 4-1 aggregate defeat.

This outcome also highlights a worrying trend in performances, where coach Bobby Williamson’s team maintain a clean sheet in the first half of a match, before collapsing under a flurry of goals in the second stanza.

All the goals in Kenya’s defeats to Egypt (twice), Morocco and Botswana were scored in the second half.

“Looks like our boys always lose concentration in the later stages of the game. That could be due to fatigue, the technical team need top address this worrying pattern,” former Kenya international, Austin Oduor, said.

The Kenyan cause in this match was also not helped by administrative bungling that resulted in the squad reaching Botswana on the day of the match.