Charles Nyende
5 June 2008
Nairobi — A star-studded Guinea arrived in Nairobi Wednesday comprising all their leading lights from the European leagues.
Captain Pascal Feindouno of St Ettiene (France), Toulouse's (France) tricky forward Fode Mansare, giant defender Bobo Balde of Scottish side Celtic and Ismael Bongoura of Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine) are all in the Guinea side that will face Harambee Stars in a World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations Group Two qualifier on Saturday at the Nyayo Stadium.
The team, under French coach Robert Nouzaret has, however, several changes from the squad that reached the quarter-finals of the Nations Cup held earlier this year in Ghana. They began their 2010 campaign with a barren draw against Zimbabwe in Conakry, while Kenya lost 0-2 to Namibia in Windhoek a weekend ago.
"Kenya is a good team. We know they lost to Namibia and we know it will be hard and difficult for Guinea. All teams in Africa are good and matches are difficult," Guinea team manager, Camara Kimoko, said at the team hotel. Guinea jetted in the country unannounced and a day early than scheduled catching local administrators unawares. And according to officials, the Guineans had made no arrangements for their accommodation in Nairobi contrary to the new Fifa rules that require the visiting team to cater for their hotel stay.
Meanwhile, there was a sigh of relieve at the Harambee Stars camp when Dennis Oliech was ruled able to play on Saturday. The Auxerre forward picked up a thigh knock against Namibia and has been under close observation.
He trained with the team Wednesday but had to put his recovering quadriceps under ice treatment.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. 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.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
