Under par Stars lacked mental strength, focus

After failing at first attempt, Sadio Mane stepped up for his second penalty against Harambee Stars on Monday night and nonchalantly tucked the ball past Patrick Matasi.

Senegal’s Liverpool forward then went off, celebrating, pointing at his head with his two index fingers.

“It’s a mental thing,” he meant to say. Indeed, rattled by a goalless first half, Senegal’s “Teranga Lions” must have thought this wasn’t going to be their night. But they didn’t panic, regrouping to eke out a convincing 3-0 win against the overawed Kenyans who, clearly, lacked the mental maturity of the Senegalese.

In their three matches so far, Stars have offered glimpses of an improved side on one hand, and, in stark contrast, performed like stunned rookies.

They disappointed against Algeria, operating in fits and starts with a commendable second half performance that offered them the drive they needed to edge out Tanzania in their second fixture.

However, Tanzania was a very low benchmark and football purists knew Sebastien Migne’s boys stood no chance against Senegal, Africa’s top-ranked nation.

The 3-2 win over John Magufuli’s boys was merely good to settle domestic scores and earn regional bragging rights, but not convincing enough to elevate Stars to title contenders in Africa.

And on Monday night, Senegal showed us the rift in class between Africa’s best and the continent’s also-rans. Notwithstanding the fact that Senegal were extremely poor, a pale shadow of their lofty standards on the night.

Migne’s lack of a positive game-plan and the absence of mental strength made them look good. Stars appeared out for a draw, a suicidal move that cost them valuable points against their jittery opponents who only gained more confidence as Kenya, as expected, withered.

The Stars committed schoolboy howlers that also provided fodder for the one-sided men in the commentary booths at the June 30 Stadium. “Lady luck” was an expression Robbie Nock, commentating on the KBC feed, used to describe Stars’ ability to hold Senegal goalless for 60 minutes.

“The Harambee Stars have been outrageously heroic against Senegal,” he said. “We can’t expect them to do more than they have done to diffuse Senegal,” he went on, as though prophetically, as, just then, Philemon Otieno fed his studs into Ismail Sarr’s shin in the 71st minute, needlessly conceding a penalty, and a second yellow card just eight minutes after the Senegal forward had opened the scoring with Stars’ otherwise brilliant ‘keeper Patrick Matasi and his defence at sixes and sevens.

This was Otieno’s second bookable offence after he had earlier on unnecessarily fouled Mane, and the red card was always coming.

One wonders what pre-match talk Sebastien Migne gave his charges, especially seeing as they came into the game dangling precariously with five players (Patrick Matasi, Abud Omar, Yohanna Omollo, Victor Wanyama and Philemon Otieno) on yellow cards, and knowing that further cautions would dismember the rickety team going into the last 16.

Migne’s decision to park the bus (where is the favoured Masoud Juma?) will forever haunt him, and if Stars dream of making the World Cup in 2022, then an overhaul of technical thinking is needed.

Senegal knew that lone hitman, Michael Olunga, could offer little resistance against their man-mountains, centre-backs Kalidou Koulibaly and Cheikhou Kouyate.

We now know we are miles behind Africa’s elite, technically and tactically. It’s not enough to qualify for Afcon finals. We must play to win on this grand stage.

A nation of world-beaters, it would be preposterous if, say, we celebrated an Eliud Kipchoge bronze medal in the marathon, while knowing only too well that gold is our minimum standard over 42 kilometres.

The Harambee Stars can do much better. A lot better!

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