Battered and bruised, national football teams limp to end of year empty-handed

Given a chance, Kenyans would gladly accept that the performance by national football teams in 2021 be omitted in the books of history.

The reason why they would not want it captured is because the performance was dismal and utterly disappointing. Harambee Stars, Emerging Stars (men’s under-23 national team), Rising Starlets (women’s under-20 national team) and Kenya National Amputee men’s team all fell short in major competitions this year.

Local football enthusiasts ushered in 2021 with broken hearts, as Kenya’s hope of making a back-to-back appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals, from arguably an easy pool, was hanging by a thread.

Pooled in Group “G” alongside continental giants Egypt, Togo and Comoros, Kenya were lying a disappointing third, with merely three points from four matches.

Egypt and minnows Comoros were at the helm of the pool on eight points each, while Togo were last with just one point.

Teams had only two rounds of matches each left in the Afcon qualifiers, and Harambe Stars’ chance of qualifying for the continental showpiece was slim.

They needed to beat a star-studded Egypt in Nairobi and Togo away in Lome, and hope that the Pharaohs and Les Coelacantes of Comoros lose all their remaining matches.

That did not happen. Egypt’s squad that included Liverpool’s red-hot attacker Mohammed Salah, Arsenal’s midfielder Mohammed Elneny and Aston Villa’s winger Mahmud Trezeguet held the impressive Stars to a 1-1 draw in a match played behind closed doors at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi. 

Bandari’s winger Abdallah Hassan netted Kenya's lone goal in the second-half, which cancelled Mohamed Magdy’s early striker for Egypt.

But with hosts Comoros and Togo having settled for a barren draw in an early kick-off of the pool, Kenya’s road to Cameroon hit a dead end. They could not catch up with Egypt and Comoros who were then leading the pool with nine points each. 

In the dead-rubber clash against Togo, Stars under the tutelage of Jacob “Ghost” Mulee emerged 2-1 winners, to cement their third place finish in the group on seven points.

On the other hand, hosts Egypt thumped Comoros 4-0 to finish atop the pool with 12 points, three above the latter. The two teams sealed tickets to the delayed Afcon planned for January 2022 in Cameroon. 

And in their usual fashion, Kenyans poured their disappointments over the failed national team’s Afcon dreams on social media.

They placed blame solely on the irrational decision by Football Kenya Federation (FKF) honchos led by president Nick Mwendwa (now out of office) to replace coach Francis Kimanzi with Mulee in the course of the qualifiers.

With Kimanzi having led the national team to a brave, 1-1 draw with Egypt in Alexandria in the first leg of the Afcon qualifiers in November 2019, many believed that had he been in charge until the end of the group matches, Kenya would have sealed a ticket to the competition’s finals. 

To cool off things, Mwendwa and Mulee assured Kenyans that the national team would qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Then, they were buoyed by the team’s brilliant show against Egypt and Togo. But this too turned to be an empty talk, as FKF repeated the same mistake that cost Kenya an Afcon ticket. 

Mulee was unexpectedly replaced by Turkish Engin Firat, who had a win: draw: loss ratio of 0:9: with Moldova.

He had no previous experience in African football and more baffling, he was hired on a two-month contract. FKF defended the deal, saying it was protecting the country against financial losses if they part ways unceremoniously. 

By the time Firat took over from Mulee, the national team’s ship was already sinking. They had drawn 0-0 and 1-1 against Uganda and Rwanda, respectively, in their Group “E” World Cup qualifiers. Mali was the other member of the group.

Kenyans heavily criticised Firat’s poor record with Moldova. Things became thick for him when Stars were humiliated 5-0 in his first assignment against Mali. It equaled Kenya’s worst-ever World Cup qualifying defeat in history — a 5-0 loss to Tanzania in 1980.

The Turk apologised unreservedly and blamed the dismal performance on “not having known his players better”.

In the return leg in Nairobi, Stars lost 1-0 to the West Africans, and Firat completed his short stint with the team with a 1-1 draw and 2-1 win over Uganda and Rwanda in the return legs. 

Temperatures had reached boiling point with Kenyans demanding change in football management in the country.

Under fire Mwendwa added salt to injury when he said on NTV that even the best coaches in the world such as Jose Mourinho (AS Roma) and Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) could not help in arresting Stars’ free fall.

Earlier in October, Kenya blew another chance to make a maiden appearance on the big stage when Rising Starlets lost 10-3 on aggregate to Uganda in the Africa Under-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers. 

The under 20 women’s national team, under the tutelage of coach Charles Okere, lost 7-2 to Uganda at Nyayo National Stadium on September 25, before falling 3-1 to their arch-rivals about two weeks later in a return leg at St Mary’s Kitende Stadium in Kampala. 

Coach Okere had in April replaced David Ouma who was shown the door for unknown reasons.

The Rising Starlets' dismal performance in the under-20 Awcon qualifiers came barely two months after Emerging Stars returned home empty-handed from Ethiopia in the 2021 Cecafa Championship. 

Kenya, who were led into the competition by Posta Rangers’ coach Stanley Okumbi, lost 4-2 to Burundi in post-match penalties in the semi-finals after drawing 0-0 in normal time. 

The side shockingly lost 1-0 to minnows South Sudan in the third place play-off to finish a disappointing fourth.

Tanzania beat Burundi 6-5 in post-match penalties after a barren draw in normal time to lift the title. 

But Harambee Starlets, also under coach Okere, would then make amends for the two teams' poor performance by thrashing South Sudan 15-1 on aggregate in the first round of the Awcon qualifiers. 

Kenya started the Awcon campaign brightly with 7-1 victory over South Sudan in the first leg at Nyayo National Stadium on October 23, before completing a double over the Bright Starlets with an 8-0 win at the same venue four days later.

The victory propelled Kenya to the next round of the qualifiers where they will face Uganda’s Crested Cranes in February 2022.

The National Amputee men’s football team too were not lucky as they lost 1-0 to Morocco in the fifth place play-off of the 2021 Cup of African Nations for Amputees Football (CANAF) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The loss saw them miss a ticket to the 2022 Amputee World Cup in Turkey - Morocco joining world champions Angola, Ghana, Tanzania and Liberia in sealing tickets to the global championships. 

While only four slots had been reserved for Africa in the global championships, room for one more team to qualify for the global championships presented itself when Angola progressed to the semi-finals.

Kenya’s amputee footballers have since called for support in establishing a local league to strengthen the squad for future success. 

“If we have a league then our players will have the endurance they need to play for an hour. Their confidence and ball handling will improve,” said Kenya’s captain Dalma Otieno.

“We only assembled the team a few weeks before the competition. That cannot be enough for a team to perform well on such a big stage.” 

Kenya were eying a third appearance in the global championships after featuring in 2014 and 2018 in Mexico. In the 2014 edition, Kenya finished 12th while in the 2018 event, they emerged ninth.

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