Sammy Kitula
29 October 2009
Nairobi — The Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has urged Kenyans to have faith in Harambee Stars head coach, Antoine Hey, despite the negative results the German coach has been producing.
While giving a personal donation of Sh2 million to Premier League club Gor Mahia at his office on Thursday, Mr Odinga said that it was the prerogative of the head coach to pick or drop any player from the national team.
"We should give credit where it is due. Our national team is playing much better than before and we must credit that. If we fail to qualify for African Cup of Nations, at least we made a start," said Odinga.
"The head coach has the right to include on his team, any player he deems fit."
In the meantime, Harambee Stars' Sunday trip to Cairo, Egypt, is still on, despite reports that several Kenyan Premier League clubs will not release their players for the international friendly match.
Football Kenya Limited chairman, Mohammed Hatimy confirmed that all players currently in camp will make the trip for the Tuesday match against Kuwait.
"There is no problem and the team will travel to Cairo on Sunday, as scheduled. There had been an agreement between FKL and premier clubs to release the players for training on Monday until Thursday," said Hatimy.
Final outcome
"Since the team is expected to return on Wednesday, that won't interfere will the running of the league."
Stars will be using the mid-week friendly match as a measure of their strength ahead of the crunch November 14 ties against the Super Eagles at Kasarani. The duel is crucial to both countries as its final outcome is expected to determine who picks the group ticket to the Fifa World Cup to be staged in South Africa, and the African Cup of Nations line-up for Angola.
"This is a match (vs Nigeria) we can't afford to lose," said Hatimy.
It is our only chance to grab the CAN ticket and as a federation, we are optimistic of a win," added the chairman.
Although Kenya has taken part in the preliminary rounds of every Fifa World Cup since 1974, the only time that they were really in the running was for France 1998.
Kenya needed to beat Nigeria to get through to the final phase, but the Super Eagles proved too strong and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners.
And 11 years down the line, a replica of that crucial tie is in the offing in two weeks; only this time, it's for different reason (s). It's an ACN berth, which Kenya is eyeing.
"It was Nigeria who stood between us and making a world cup trip in France. Such memories aren't quite interesting to recall. This is a different time, different team and we hope to change history," said Hatimy.
Harambee Stars have never had it easy in the qualifiers going by past results. In the African pre-preliminary qualifying rounds for Germany 2006, Kenya was drawn against their East African rivals Tanzania, with whom they still had a score to settle after the Taifa Stars sent them crashing out the qualifying competition for Spain 1982.
They did not manage to avenge a 5-0 away loss after a goalless draw in Dar-es-Salaam, but a home victory gave them what they wanted, with Dennis Oliech scoring two goals in the 3-0 goals result.
At the same time, sources at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) say the federation was expected to release the list of players expected to camp ahead of the Kenya versus Nigeria World Cup qualifier in Nairobi.
Coach Shaibu Amodu, who recently returned to Nigeria from Cairo, where he attended a Caf Instructors course, met with officials of the NFF on Tuesday to defend the list he submitted to the federation for the crucial game.
The source, who didn't wish to be named, disclosed that some players, who had not been part of the Super Eagles set-up despite their impressive form this season, were included in the list, just as some local players, including the captain of Heartland of Owerri, Thank God Ike, and fullback Chibuzor Okonkwo.
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