Comoros friendly lays bare gaps in Stars formation
What you need to know:
- At the Grand Stade de Marrakech on Saturday, Stars started well, scoring in the opening minute via captain Victor Wanyama’s penalty after Eric Johanna had been brought down in the box.
- Michael Olunga then hit the post with a rifled shot a couple of minutes later, but between the 12th and 25th minutes, something went wrong and the handful of spectators in the stadium were treated to misplaced passes from Kenyan defenders.
IN MARRAKECH, MOROCCO
Harambee Stars players have to improve accuracy of their passes, speed of attacks, and conversion of scoring opportunities if Kenya is to stand a chance of playing in 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
These shortcomings were all too evident when Kenya played Comoros here on Saturday in a friendly match meant to help fine-tune the team for 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches set to continue in September.
At the Grand Stade de Marrakech on Saturday, Stars started well, scoring in the opening minute via captain Victor Wanyama’s penalty after Eric Johanna had been brought down in the box.
Michael Olunga then hit the post with a rifled shot a couple of minutes later, but between the 12th and 25th minutes, something went wrong and the handful of spectators in the stadium were treated to misplaced passes from Kenyan defenders.
A blind pass when Kenya was under little pressure from the opponent during a build-up led to loss of possession and Stars conceded the first goal.
“I’m not satisfied with our performances today. We conceded cheap goals. We were supposed to win this game,” Stars goalkeeper Patrick Matasi told Nation Sport afterwards.
Paul Were’s introduction at the start of the second half rejuvenated Stars attack.
Worryingly though, the Kazakhstan-based winger created three clear chances at the start of the second half which went begging. Soon after, another wayward pass by Kenya midway through the second half resulted in Comoros beating Kenya’s defence to plant the ball in the back of Stars net.
Another substitute, Clifton Miheso, saved Kenya the blushes with a late equaliser. Stars coach Stanley Okumbi must go back to the drawing board ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against Central Africa Republic.
“I’m not satisfied by our performance. We should have won the game, considering the chances we lost, but that’s a learning process. I expect a tough game against Central Africa Republic,” said Miheso.
Kenya who lost away to Sierra Leone in their opening game of the 2019 Africa Nations Cup qualifier last year, have fixtures against Ghana and Ethiopia home and away, and a home match against the Leone Stars.
