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MAKING SENSE OF HARAMBEE STARS' DRAW WITH EGYPT

 You have already read the title, you know what this is about. Let's go straight into it. Harambee Stars crushed out of Afcon 2021. We all knew it was coming, but rather than admit it it, we only spoke about it in hushed tones, stretching whatever little hope there still was that a miracle would happen and Harambee stars would beat a star studded Egyptian side featuring a two time English Premier League top scorer, and somehow defy fate. It was never going to happen. We can now shout it from the roof tops. There is no shame in failure, at least we tried. We are not bottom of the group, we avoided defeat to a 7-time African football champions over two legs. Mohamed Salah, a two time EPL top scorer, couldn't put one in the net against us in 180 minutes of football. So we can be proud. But that a side, we were poor. Maybe not last night but over the whole period of the campaign. We lost  our first group game to Comoros and haven't looked like we could qualify.

Michael Olunga had a game to forget. He had a couple of really good chances but he failed to deliver, the weight of added responsibility as team captain probably weighing him down. But Salah didn't score either so we can excuse the "engineer". Overall, Harambee Stars played well, but a couple of bad decisions undid all the hard work. The first goal was from sloppy defending coupled with lack of concentration. Harambee stars gifted the Egyptians an easy one goal head-start and you can't afford to do that against such an astute opposition. We dominated thereafter, creating really good chances, with Egypt resigned to sitting deep and trying to hit us on the counter with their characteristic long balls. Kenya enjoyed a long period of domination with nothing to show for it.

It has to be said, Jacob Mulei did a good job. Kenya played well, and could even have got the much deserved victory had Johnstone Omurwa not lost his head and got himself hauled off. I think Michael Olunga should have been substituted off. He had an off day. Marcelo Ouma, ever reliable on the flanks, put in a really good shift and Joash Onyango was solid at the back. We have a good team. The fact that most of Harambee stars players play in Africa, is proving to be a good thing. If you are going to be a successful side in African football you must have majority of your players plying their trade in the continent.

But we failed to qualify, that's the bottom line. And this is bad. It is very bad. When CAF decided to expand the tournament to 24 teams in 2018 there was hope that it would give opportunity to fringe teams like ours a chance to qualify and indeed two years ago Kenya did just that. This time it has eluded us and we should hang our heads in shame. In the end, 24 team will be in Cameroon and unfortunately Harambee Stars will not be amongst them. Let this sink in for a moment: 24 slots out of 54 countries and we still cant make it, can a team be poorer!?

Kenya Starting 11 : Ian Otieno (Zesko United, Zambia, GK), Daniel Sakari (Kariabangi Sharks, Kenya), Eric Ouma (AIK, Sweden), Joash Onyango (Simba, Tz), Anthony Akumu (Kazier Chiefs, SA) Johnstone Omurwa (Wazito, Kenya), Kenneth Muguna (Gor Mahia, Kenya), Lawrence Juma (Sofapaka, Kenya), Abdallah Hassan (Bandari, Kenya), Masoud Juma (El Jadidi, Moroco), Michael Olunga (Al Duhail, Qatar) (c).

Subs : James Saruni, Nahashon Alembi, Harun Mwale, Duncan Otieno, Duke Abuya, Cliff Nyakeya, Kelvin Kimani, James Mazembe, Elvis Rupia, Kelvin Simiyu.

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