After two forgettable displays at the ongoing CECAFA Kagame Cup, Tusker joined whipping boys Wau Salaam of South Sudan and Ports SC of Djibouti as the first casualties of the regional club competition.
When the draw placed five time champions Tusker in group B together with minnows Mafunzo of Zanzibar and Azam of Tanzania, many Tusker fans must have sighed with relief. This is especially so considering that group A had three big clubs - Simba SC of Tanzania, Uganda's URA FC and Vita Club, the guest club from Congo DR.
Group C, which was tagged the group of death, also consisted of three big guns namely, Yanga of Tanzania, Atletico from Burundi and Rwanda's army outfit APR FC.
With such a seemingly favourable draw for the beer men from Ruaraka, it seemed a foregone conclusion that they would roll over their opponents and find themselves in the quarter finals without breaking a sweat. The opposite was the case, however, right from the first match when Tusker played out an embarrassing 0-0 draw against Mafunzo FC.
This result meant that Tusker had to win their next match against money-laden Azam FC, or at worst, force a 2-2 draw so as to eliminate Mafunzo. The Kenyan defending champions, however, returned to Dar es Salaam's National Stadium in worse shape than they were during their first match.
Obviously lacking creativity of any kind and sticking to an unproductive snail-paced approach, the team struggled to open up Azam's defence. Soon after, they resorted to wastefully shooting long balls into Azam's danger area.
Captain Joseph Shikokoti, who had managed a slightly decent performance against Mafunzo, had a performance to forget this time round. A blunt Azam forward line almost had the defender to thank for a gift of a goal when he powerfully headed towards his own goal, with goalkeeper Boniface Oluoch luckily preventing the ball from hitting the net.
The lowest point of Shikokoti's display was yet to come. It came courtesy of a school boy blunder. With an Azam striker breathing down his neck as he faced his keeper, the gigantic defender hesitated and left all defensive duty to Oluoch, who under the circumstances had no option other than committing a foul on the Azam player, earning a straight red card as a result.
Just like in the match against Mafunzo, Tusker's few chances came late in the match. One such opportunity involved substitute Obadiah Ndege, whose charge towards Azam's goal was suddenly halted a few yards from the Tanzanians' penalty area. Ndege's meek response when the resultant free kick rebounded towards him aptly summarised Tusker's miserable campaign.
Talk of leaving the party with a whimper when every one expected you were the guy to steal the show. With performances such as these, perhaps we should refrain from gloating and bragging about how our league has improved after professional management by the Kenya Premier League and cash injections by South Africa's Supersport and other sponsors.
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