That is easier said, though, as Zambia have a higher
pedigree in African football compared to Kenya. After all, the Chipolopolo are
regular Afcon finals participants and actually won the tournament in 2012.
Ranked 18th in Africa and 73rd in the world, Zambia are 43
places above Kenya in the global FIFA rankings.
All countries in Kenya’s Afcon group E (including Guinea
Bissau and Congo) are on one point after the first round of matches, where
Kenya drew 1-1 with Congo and Zambia were held to a 0-0 draw by Guinea Bissau.
Does that give Kenya hope?
The last time Kenya met Zambia in the Afcon qualifiers was
in 1999, when the Zambians won 1-0 home and away. In fact, Kenya have not
beaten Zambia in the Afcon before and the overall head-to-head record is
overwhelmingly in favour of Zambia.
Since the two countries first met in 1964, they have played
each other 34 times, with Kenya winning six times, drawing six times and losing 22
times. The most recent encounter was during the 2009 CECAFA Senior Challenge
Cup tournament held in Nairobi where Harambee Stars lost 0-2 to the Zambians.
Against this background, do we stand any chance of beating
the Zambians and enhancing our chances of qualifying for Gabon 2017? At the
start of the qualifying process, it would have been very easy to answer ‘yes’,
especially after Kenya threatened to embarrass the highly fancied Congolese in
their own backyard before a schoolboy mistake by defender Jackson Saleh gifted
them a penalty and the match ended one all.
Two months later, Kenyan fans’ apprehension must be growing
that come Sunday evening, they might find themselves on the loosing side yet
again.
This should not be the case, especially now that Kenya can
again boast of decently talented footballers. We now have numerous players
featuring competitively in foreign leagues, the most prominent being
undoubtedly Southampton’s Victor Wanyama.
For the first time in a long while, we have a situation
where coach Bobby Williamson is spoilt for choice in terms of selecting
strikers. Gor Mahia’s Michael Olunga and Tusker FC’s Jesse Were are enjoying
top scoring form in the SportsPesa Premier League while Jacob Keli must have
learnt one new trick or two from his experience playing in the Zambian league.
As talented as Kenya’s current squad is, the issue of poor
preparations might return to haunt us as the case has been many times in the
past. Responding to journalists questions after a training session, coach Williamson
acknowledged that Zambia had enjoyed better preparations than Kenya and as such
held an edge leading to the Sunday encounter.
"Of course, they (Zambia) will always have an advantage
but it (early preparation) was out of our hands . It was a question of whether
we will have the players and whether the clubs would release them,” said
Mr Williamson.
If one were not from Kenya, it would be easy to wonder how
the Zambians managed to organise a three-week training programme for their
national team while Harambee Stars are counting on four days of training to put
together a winning formula against their dangerous opponents.
However, as Kenyans, we know that FKF hardly ever gets
anything right. They are the classic ‘reap where you did not sow’ kind of
organisation. They are probably already preparing to praise themselves in case of a win and to blame someone if we lose. It was especially disheartening to hear a FKF official talking of ticketing arrangements when he was asked abouk Kenya's preparations for the match.
One other problem facing Kenya is the mental strength of
captain Victor Wanyama, whose attempt to engineer a move to Tottenham Spurs was
swiftly snuffed out, accompanied with a strong warning from Saints coach Ronald Koeman.
Is he currently in the right frame of mind to play?
Additionally, a comedy of errors meant that Paul Were’s mooted move to Gor Mahia never materialised
and the player has thus missed precious playing time. Considering that he was
Kenya’s brightest player in Congo, that is a great loss indeed.
And there is the small matter of goalkeeping. Kenya’s most
reliable goalkeeper has been Arnold Origi for a long while now. While he has
already played close to 2000 minutes for his club Lillestrom of Norway, the
player seems reluctant to continue serving his motherland with dedication, yet
that is the least we can ask of him.
If Origi is a no show again, we shall be left with the
option of Gor Mahia’s Boniface Oluoch,
who will definitely torture millions of Kenyans silently praying for 90 minutes that he does
not have one of his bad days in goal.
Having said all that, my hope is that we shall get that first Afcon win against Zambia and improve our chances of going to Gabon 2017. We
have that Kenyan spirit that seems to drive us on even in the midst of the
toughest of challenges. After all, we have home ground advantage - the 12th player.
So, Go! Go! Stars!
