It is true Kenya's 2-1 win against Angola in the ongoing African Cup of Nations qualifiers revived our qualification dreams but the question is: shall we be able to withstand the forthcoming pressure in the form of crunch away games in Uganda and Angola?
Three things came out clearly as Kenya battled from a goal down to win the match. First, this was not a decent display by the national team - it was a great escape. Apart from totally dominating in all departments in the first half, the Southern Africans could easily have been 3-0 up by half time but for the heroics of goalkeeper Arnold Origi and an off-the-line clearance by defender Dennis Odhiambo.
Secondly, the match revealed that a lot needs to be done to improve our defence, which might ultimately determine whether we qualify for 2012 or not. Joseph Shikokoti was very slow both on and off the ball, Situma performed better going forward than defending and Edgar Ochieng was caught out of position on several occasions. Dennis Odhiambo had a slightly decent performance, but still, the Angolans penetrated Kenya's defence through his side too frequently.
This should not be the case as Kenya has produced great defences over the years. Think of players like Hassan Juma, John 'Bobby' Ogolla, Austine Oduor Vincent Kwarula and Sammy Omollo, amongst the many defenders that have made Kenya proud in the not-so distant past.
Even very recently, under the stewardship of Francis Kimanzi, Kenya enjoyed solid defence performances courtesy of the partnership of George Owino and Edgar Ochieng in central defence and John Njoroge on left back. Clearly, coach Zedekiah 'Zico' Otieno must shuffle his defence unit if he hopes to continue enjoying the fickle support of Kenyan football fans.
The introduction of Jamal Mohammed and Victor Mugabe in the second half brought life and creativity to Kenya's mid field. these two enabled Kenya to score the two goals that won us the match. They proved that we have highly talented players that can use individual brilliance to change the course of a match. Any one who saw Nigeria's Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha's exploits in mid field will easily agree with me that on a good day Jamal Mohammed would have gone head-to-head with the great Nigerian mid field wizard.
Clearly, the onus is on Kenya's coaches to know when and where to play which mid fielder - in other words, if these gifted Kenyan mid fielders are properly selected and deployed on the pitch, Kenyans will have nothing to fear, as far as that department is concerned.
It is in the striking department that Kenya appears weakest. It is noteworthy that the two goals against Angola were scored by mid fielders. the striking trio of Bob Mugalia, Dennis Oliech and John "Black Berry" Odhiambo failed to deliver and Odhiambo had to be pulled out. Oliech threatened on several occasions but one could easily deduce that his menacing goal-bound runs and lethal strikes that have tormented African great defences, such as those of Tunisia, Morocco, Guinea and Nigeria, were missing.
It might be that the continued use of the Kenyan striker as an attacking mid fielder by his French club, Auxerre, has affected his approach of play, or it might be that he has just cooled off and will be back to his old lethal self. If so, it better be sooner rather than later. Still, we must discover another great striker soon. It is not healthy to continue our total dependence on Oliech.
No comments:
Post a Comment