The National men’s U20 soccer team Rising Stars returns home with a bag full of lessons from their debut campaign at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations ongoing In Egypt.
Kenya exited the tournament at the group phase following two defeats against Morocco and Tunisia and a 2-2 draw against Nigeria in their final group B match.
‘’Much was expected from us,at some point I felt like we let Kenyan’s down,but again I realized that it was just our first tournaments and we learnt a lot of things that we need to start looking into.’’,Kenya U20 assistant head coach Antony Akhulia reasoned at JKIA on Sunday when the team arrived back.
Among the key observations that must aplly soon or later Akhulia adds:
‘’We must be the champions in CECAFA and the next AFCON we can get to the semi finals.We started our preparations early but had more friendly matches locally.look at how the friendly we played Ghana and how it was helpful in helping us prepare and handle Nigeria,we could have had to face one north africvan opponent it would have been key as well’’.
Playing at such a continental age group championship exposes the young talents to massive window to showcase their talents,a brighter point for the national team and future cogs in national side.But guiding them to reach the peak is a tiring climb.
‘’This is a great team the federation and the government only need to know how to keep them together and those of age be put together and make a few additions so that we have a great team for CECAFA AND AFCON’’Akhulia remarked.
‘’It was a good performance .we could pick the p[ositives from the matches they played.especially the last match they really pushed themselves and showed resilience in terms of defending and attacking.With proper youth structures we can perform better. We have to put our structures right for both the boys and the girls’’,quipped Athanus Obango,FKF head of special projects and national teams .
Amos Wanjala who captained the side in two of the three games was hopeful the lessons picked in Cairo will prove crucial in future.
‘’We learnt a lot and we are going to correct,theres another chance to fight back in future we have both faced the negative and positive faces and we are going to correct where necessary’’.
