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Kenya/Eritrea: Eritreans Arrive to Tackle Tusker
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
10 February 2008
Posted to the web 11 February 2008
Robin Toskin
Nairobi
Tusker's opponents in the CAF Champions League, Al Tahir, of Eritrea have landed ahead of their encounter at Nyayo Stadium on Saturday.
The Eritrean champions' coach, Hadish Tewolde, said on Saturday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport that he knew nothing about Tusker but promised to make the most of chances on Saturday.
"We have come to make friendship with Kenyans and although we don't know much about Tusker, we will have to use every chance we get during the match," Tewolde said through an interpreter. Their plane touched down at 2.00pm.
Tewolde said he had two national team players in goalkeeper Fitsum Kelati and Solomon Kebede and former international Ambasader Sium.
The coach expressed confidence the match will be played in cordial atmosphere and played down the current political situation in the country.
"We have heard and seen a lot of things on television but even then Kenyans are still here, they have not run away. In any case, we are not any better," Tewolde said. He said they came early because of flight shortage back in Eritrea.
The Kenya Football Federation Technical Director, Patrick Naggi, was on hand to receive the Al Tahir entourage of 18 players and six officials.
Naggi expressed optimism the Champions League encounter would give Kenyans something to cheer since violence erupted following the disputed presidential poll results a month ago.
"Football unites people from different backgrounds and with Tusker playing Al Tahir we hope Kenyans will come out in numbers to cheer their team," he said.
It is the fifth time in as many years that Kenya's representatives are meeting Eritrean opposition in the preliminary rounds.
Tusker also played Eritrea's Red Sea last year and in 2005 and on both occasions qualified only to stumble against Egyptian football aristocrats Zamalek and Al Ahly.
Tusker beat Red Sea 3-2 in Nairobi last year and won the reverse 1-0 in Asmara, but met their waterloo at the hands of Al Ahly who beat them 2-0 at Kasarani and 2-1 in Cairo.
Kenya's club encounters with Eritreans and Egyptians every other year was a subject of discussion at the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) congress in Tanzania last December.
Kenya football officials complained of a predetermined path for the local clubs and asked Cecafa to voice their concern with Caf.
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The officials argued that local clubs were denied exposure to the rest of the continent by only playing against Eritrean and Egyptian opponents.
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| Copyright © 2008 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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