Fleet-footed Dennis Ng’ang’a deserves national team slot
Harambee Stars Turkish coach Engin Firat during a press conference at Two Rivers Mall in Nairobi on March 19, 2023.
What you need to know:
- I would have expected him to be in the Harambee Stars squad travelling to Tehran for the March 28 friendly.
- However, as I have said up there, I do not know the criteria of choosing this elite team but any layman would know that a player’s form and performance in his team always comes first in such selections and by virtue of this one criterium alone, Onyango makes it.
On Friday I was at the Nyayo National Stadium as Gor Mahia battled to a barren draw with KCB.
Apart from the obvious reason of rooting for K’Ogalo to bankrupt the bankers in the match, I was there for another reason— to assess the playing capability of Gor’s defender Dennis Ng’ang’a.
See folks, days leading to the Friday tie, local pundits were going hammers and tongs at one another on whether the decision by Harambee Stars coach to lock out Ng’ang’a from his call-up in the team to face Iran in an international friendly was justified.
I have watched the lad play before but this day I took extra keen interest. At the end of the game I was convinced to throw my lot with those who feel that Ng’ang’a deserves to be in the national team.
He has the presence on the pitch, quick in drawing the ball out of opponent’s feet and even quicker when the team needs to move upfront in search of goals.
I have no idea what forms the opinion of the scouts working with the head coach in naming the national team squad but in this they failed not only Ng’ang’a but the Gor Mahia fan base and the country at large.
I will not delve into alleged shenanigans surrounding the whole razzmatazz of selecting players to defend the national flag in international fixtures but suffice it to say that those charged with this sacrosanct duty must be men and women cleaner than Caesar’s wife.
In other words they should undertake their duties with such solemnity that at the end of the day, even a player who misses the cut would approach his contemporaries called up to offer words of congratulations.
That said, I am still at a loss why former Gor Mahia guy, Joash Onyango “Berlin Wall” did not make it to the team either. If you follow Tanzanian football in general and Simba SC in particular you will realise that Onyango is performing wonders for the Tanzanians and is a permanent feature in the Simba squad.
I would have expected him to be in the Harambee Stars squad travelling to Tehran for the March 28 friendly.
However, as I have said up there, I do not know the criteria of choosing this elite team but any layman would know that a player’s form and performance in his team always comes first in such selections and by virtue of this one criterium alone, Onyango makes it.
Finally on the issue of housekeeping, I feel Gor Mahia is still being run like a village team and not an outfit that is currently sitting at the pinnacle of the local league. Two weeks ago I was at the self same Nyayo National Stadium for our game against Mathare.
In this era of cashless transactions abounding all over, it is inevitable that there are fans who will turn up to buy tickets using their mobile phone apps. I was taken aback when on this day the monies paid for the tickets went to an individual’s personal line.
It does not take the brains of a rocket scientist to set up an official paybill or “Buy Goods” account where the money goes straight to the club’s coffers.
Maybe it was an oversight or deliberate (my suspicion weights to the latter) that an individual’s personal line was receiving the money we were paying to get into the match venue.
As usual, the fans raised this matter but with their “fans be damned” attitude, those in charge never responded to such. May God help our beloved Gor Mahia!
