It’s win or bust! Harambee Stars face moment of truth

Kenya face a desperate fight to stay alive when they host minnows Guinea-Bissau in a Group E encounter at Nyayo National Stadium on Sunday.

Just four days earlier, Harambee Stars, under new coach Stanely Okumbi, had optimistically headed west to Bissau with pundits certain the east African football giants would be good enough to gather all three crucial points from a nation ranked 44 places lower than them by Fifa.

But the doubts started creeping in when the line-up, featuring untested novices at this level surfaced, the likes of Patilla Omotto and Ovella Ochieng of lower tier league side Kariobangi Sharks, with talk rife a hand had been forced on Okumbi regarding selection.

A rather unassured Stars laboured and struggled to exert any level of superiority against a decidedly smaller football nation.

Kenya in fact fell behind in the 17th minute and never recovered in the 0-1 loss as bewildered Kenyans wondered what was happening to their 2017 African finals dreams.

The result left Stars firmly languishing at the bottom of the table in the group with a single point as Republic of Congo and Zambia stayed on top on five points apiece.

The writing is clearly on the wall for Kenya ahead of this tie. They must win to remain in contention. A loss will almost certainly rule them mathematically out of contention should either Zambia or Congo secure a win. Okumbi acknowledged as much late last week when he declared he would pursue an all-out attack.

The game kicks off at 4pm with entry pegged at Sh1,000 for VIP and Sh300 terraces. Gone it seems are the days when a Harambee Stars international matches at Nyayo, where many big teams have fallen, would generate so much buzz. Still it is the most supported national team in the country and a fair crowd is expected.

Okumbi is hopeful they will punch their way out the corner they find themselves in. “I don’t know why people are saying that I was pressured to pick certain players. I wasn’t. I played the people I thought were the best for the job.”

“We had good possession in the last game and if we can turn that into goals then we can win this second game.

“There will definitely be a few changes in the squad because some players are injured and others like Calabar (David Owino) are ineligible to play,” he said.

Okumbi’s decision to leave out the likes of Jesse Were, Anthony Akumu and Omar Mbongi out of his starting line-up was criticised earlier in the week, although he defended his move saying that youngsters Ochieng and Omotto were indeed “the best” players for that match.

On Sunday, Okumbi is likely to reinstate either Zesco United striker Jesse Were or the Greece-based winger Paul Were in the starting line-up to partner striker Michael Olunga in the hunt for goals.