League, shield double within Bandari’s reach
What you need to know:
- Honestly, this is total madness in my opinion because a human body requires time to recover.
- I even doubt if the locally based Harambee Stars players will have any legs to play at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt from June.
- Condensing a league that hitherto used to run for 12 months into five months is the worst thing to have ever happened to Kenyan football.
I watched Bandari demolish Western Stima 4-1 in Mombasa to storm into the semi-finals of the SportPesa Shield and quickly concluded that striking a double is within the dockers reach this season if only they will find a formula to deal with fatigue.
Bandari literarily toyed with Kisumu’s finest and could have even won by a bigger margin if goal poacher, Congolese import Yema Mwama was not stretchered off with an ankle injury in the first quarter of the game.
What was clearly evident however was that players from both sides quickly ran out of gas early in the second half and one could see how frustrated they were with the match officials whom they wanted to conclude the encounter as soon as possible.
An obviously exhausted Abdallah Hassan of Bandari time and against sent signals to the technical bench to be substituted, but the team had finished it’s replacements. Mwama, Darius Msagha and Shaban Kenga went out for Wyclife Ochomo, Michael Luvustsi and Benjamin Mosha.
Goals from William Wadri, Shaban Kenga, Abdallah Hassan and Ochomo, who officially announced his return with a well-executed penalty, sending Western Stima goalkeeper Samuel Odhiambo the wrong way, after close to three months on the terraces with a shoulder injury.
Bandari has all the ingredients of title contenders but might be let down by fatigue due to long travels and congested fixtures at a time he believes some teams in the top league will have run out of finances to honour league matches.
Bandari’s main sponsor Kenya Ports Authority have been there for them paying salaries in time, arranging for the team’s travels and accommodation, a luxury most of the clubs don’t have as we speak. This puts Bandari in good stead to win both the SportPesa Premier League title and SportPesa Shield.
Bandari face fellow coast side SS Assad in a seemingly easy Shield semi-final.
But many Bandari fans are worried that this monster fatigue might be the team’s main doing especially if they will not have enough players to rotate.
“Players are human beings and cannot play competitive matches in a space of three days, combined with travelling over 1,000km in between. It makes football lose its real meaning completely because games will never be entertaining anymore with most teams only struggling to honour the fixture but not to display any meaningful soccer”, a visibly irritated observer told me.
Bandari played Western Stima in midweek SportPesa Premier League match at Kericho on Tuesday last week, travelled the same day to face Western Stima in the Shield quarter-final in Mombasa on Saturday and were on the bus again immediately after the match to Kisumu where they are scheduled to face Gor Mahia in a league match on Tuesday.
After that they will travel to Nairobi for another league match against AFC Leopards on Saturday.
Honestly, this is total madness in my opinion because a human body requires time to recover.
I even doubt if the locally based Harambee Stars players will have any legs to play at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt from June.
Condensing a league that hitherto used to run for 12 months into five months is the worst thing to have ever happened to Kenyan football.
