Kenya need a miracle and huge slice of luck to reach Afcon

 

I'm on record for strongly admonishing Jacob Mulee in this column for his cavalier and defeatist mentality sometime in October last year ahead of his first assignment after his appointment as Harambee Stars coach head coach.

What riled me back then was Mulee’s submission to lowly Comoros who were due in Nairobi for a 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying match.

While lamenting the absence of some key players in his squad, Mulee only fell short of conceding defeat before the actual match by stating that Kenya would go into the tie against the unfancied islanders as the underdogs.

Mulee’s concession would actually prove prophetic. Stars toiled to a drab 1-1 draw in Nairobi before succumbing to a 2-1 defeat four days later away in the reverse fixture.

To justify the team’s poor showing, there were claims of Comoros using underhand tactics – ‘dirty tricks’ in Mulee’s words – during the away fixture and lamentations about ‘unfair’ fixtures which supposedly gave other teams in the group undue advantage over Kenya; a bagful of excuses for the team’s embarrassing performance over the two matches.

I'm also on record for consigning Mulee’s team to the gutters following that debacle in the tiny Indian Ocean Island, which as good as extinguished Harambee Stars’ hopes of making it to Cameroon for the biennial continental showpiece.

Now, for the first time since his appointment as Harambee Stars head coach, Mulee has finally made a statement that will give the long-suffering Kenyan fans some glimmer of hope.

Ahead of the team’s last two fixtures in the campaign, which appears to be a lost cause anyway, the experienced tactician-turned-radio commentator early this week expressed confidence that his team will put up a good show against Egypt and Togo.

Talk of shutting the stable door after the horse has already bolted. That is what I made of Mulee’s belated reassurance.

I don’t know what has changed over the last six months or so that gives Mulee such confidence in the face of opponents of such pedigree and more solid track records than the Comoros.

Maybe it has to do with some tales I’ve heard from some optimistic Kenyan fans about arithmetic permutations that could possibly salvage Kenya’s campaign; that with three points, Kenya can still sneak in by beating both Egypt and Togo for a maximum of nine points.

I will confess that during my schooling days, I was never that good a mathematics student, but from the little math I grasped, Kenya’s arithmetic strategy is by far more complicated than what Egypt and Comoros – who are jointly on top of the group on eight points – can conjure.

And believe you me, there are also good mathematics teachers out there in Egypt and Comoros who are alive to the fact that just one more win in two matches will see these two nations through.

That we cannot make it to a 24-team Africa Cup of Nations finals is pure agony.

Miracles do happen, yet I'm not holding my breath for Mulee and his troops to take us to Cameroon. But how I wish I'm wrong on this one and Harambee Stars pull off the improbable.

Actually, with such huge odds stacked against them, Mulee and his men have a perfect opportunity to prove wrong the doubting Thomases, like yours truly.  BY DAILY NATION