Kenya’s amputee national team captain Mohammed Munga in action during a match in Nairobi
Kenya national amputee team narrowly lost by a single goal in the ongoing African Amputee Football Cup of Nations (AAFCON) opener against Algeria on Sunday at the Petrosport Stadium in Cairo, Egypt.
Speaking after the match from Cairo, national team head coach Clement Abdalla Otieno bemoaned on lost opportunities warning that his charges now have no option but to win on Monday against Gambia.
” It was a tricky outing for us and a regrettable one based on how the game went on. We created more than the Algerians, but failed to find the net, we now find ourselves in a situation where we have to win the next match and hope favorites Ghana also drop points before we meet them on the final day of the fixture,” said a hopeful Otieno.
Abdalla and his assistant Francis Ocholla barely had a week to prepare the national team after former coach Dalmas Otieno was mysteriously dismissed days to the Championships, but still managed to come up with a formidable squad that arrived in Egypt a day before their tournament opener on Sunday.
Kenya who are pooled in group C now face a slippery hill with a must win game against Gambia on Monday and then finish it up with African champions Ghana on Tuesday, two matches that must bear atleast four points or more if Otieno’s charges will have to advance out of group C, to the knock out stages.
Otieno, a former Kenya Premier League ( KPL) player, together with his assistant Ocholla who in his hey days was a regular figure in Gormahia’s midfield picked Ferdinand Obi and Washington Pancras as the two custodians who travelled with the squad to Cairo.
Ignatius Khayumbi, Kevin Lumbasi and Peter Nzioka are the defenders while the experienced Brian Oroka leads the midfield together with Albert Mwakenga ,Lucky Mzee and Joash Bariti while Captain Mohammed Munga leads the attack in partnership with Nicholas Keiyo and Eugene Batu.
Head coach Otieno and his assistant Ocholla are confident that the boys they picked from Nairobi are good enough to advance from group C, despite having a few hours of acclimatization before their first game on Sunday and now have another acid test within 24 hours against Gambia before finalizing the fixture against Ghana as now worries of physical fitness and recovery are slowly cropping into the minds of the technical bench
