KENYA WON - TOGO ONE!!!

KENYA WON - TOGO ONE!!!

FOOTBALL – “Where grown-up(s)…especially men, chase a small, inflated leather-strap across a field...and the crowd in the terraces gets irate and elated as the ‘ball’ makes for any of the two posts! Why?”

My octogenarian granny muses every time she tunes in the telly, only to find that all channels are airing football matches. I wear my usual warm smile and slouch my back on the couch my eyes fixed on the screen, savoring the best of the season’s marches; as she listens to her favorite radio music instead.

PATRIOTS?

Kenyans are a very patriotic people in every nature and wit, if their fanaticism towards the European Soccer teams is something to go by. Mention any European soccer team, be it Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona or any other, and you are sure of getting a multitude of ‘die-hard’ fans and fanatics; heaping praises to their teams of choice and idolizing their players. Just to say the least.

Interestingly, try mention any Kenyan football team, Gor Mahia, Thika United, Harambee Stars; and you are sure of getting some not so pleasant looks your side, accompanied by, “…you know Kenyan football is poorly managed, and the players are ‘starved’…that’s why the few good players we have fly abroad to play in foreign teams.” Leaving Kenya a football-desert.

LAND OF THE GREATS        

But Kenyan is a great football nation and with great soccer players! Don’t we have the likes of Dennis Oliech, MacDonald Mariga and scores of other Kenyan sons playing in international football teams? But am told that our football is below par. Is it true? Am not telling you what ails our football. Maybe it is national mismanagement of football funds? Unqualified human resource? Inadequate training facilities? Lack of motivation to players or that we do not have role models in this esteemed field of sports?

Or is it that Kenyans love things foreign, that they would better be caught dead watching Kenya Premier League soccer matches or cheer-up Kenyan teams, where their fathers, brothers, sons, relatives and friends play…thus the sad, sorry state-of-affairs of our soccer. Too bad, they forget their home sweet duty!

I bet, it is that Kenyans like foreign football teams, especially those of the English Premier League…to the point that football events involving such teams like Man-U, Chelsea, Liverpool…rules our living rooms, office talks, bar banters, town gossips, and daily discussions and to some extent, our whole lives.

A good number of Kenyan fans can vividly name a whole line-up of a playing foreign team but, fail even to know who the mid-fielder or goalkeeper of a local team in the Kenya Premier League is, or how they perform. 

HOMEGROWN

To revive her football, Kenya doesn’t need much of the foreign ideologies and profound theories to ward off her local ailments. She needs homegrown remedies. Her own unique solutions.

Kenyan ought to take responsibility of her potentiality, build soccer stadia where there are none, renovate and expand the existing ones. Enhance the general security for the players as well as that of fans.  Hunt for football talents from institutions of learning and put up football academies to hone their skills and exploit their talents. Make football-playing a profession with attractive packages, to reduce the number of Kenyan players jetting out of the country for greener pastures abroad.

Putting in place the best human resource managing football issues; who are result-oriented, would ensure continued progress. Award longer working contracts to football team coaches and managers. Moreover, the local media are obliged to sell the Kenyan football by giving it enough airtime; to draw Kenyan and international viewers, and expand the fan base.

Kenyans, in general should try injecting some good dose of patriotism in promoting and watching the local football- MADE IN KENYA! Only then football became beautiful.

FEVER PITCH

So Wednesday 29th February, 2012 wasn’t such a bad day for Kenyan football. Kenya’s Harambee Stars played against Togo’s Sparrow Hawks in their first leg qualifier match of Africa Cup of Nations Qualification (ACN), which is part of the FIFA (International Soccer Governing Council) calendar.

Kenyans turned up in big numbers at the Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi, and security check-ups aside; braved the afternoon city weather to give their team the much-needed home support. The sight of empty terraces was attributed to the fact that the match was being played on a weekday, when most people were busy in their places of work and only have free time only on weekends.

The Stars shone over the Sparrows trouncing them by 2-1. The Stars through James Situma scored against
the Sparrows at the 24^th minute, making an early lead for Kenya. However, at the 42^nd minute in the first half of the match, midfielder Razak Boukari slammed the ball against to the Kenyan goalpost, scoring for the Togolese side. Thus, it was a draw of 1-1 scores at half-time.

Re-energized, both teams trounced back in the field for the second-half of the match, determined to out-do each other. Apart from thrilling the fans on the terraces and those glued to the screens at their places of comfort, with wonderful football maneuvers, the Stars once more ‘thrashed’ the Sparrows at the 66^th minute through striker Allan Wanga. Kenyans did not disappoint cheering up the Harambee boys against Emmanuel Adebayor.

THE STARS SHONE
 This capped it all, as the Togolese efforts to get past the strong Kenyan defense were more than often thwarted. The Kenyan boys proved hard to beat to the West Africans!

The Stars reigned with a comfortable 2-1, at the blow of the whistle to the end of the match.