A lot needs to be done for Harambee Stars to advance to the next level

Woe unto you if you are a fan of Harambee Stars! They have just lost another match to Sudan in the LG sponsored international friendly match at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi. The match ended on a 2-1 note in favour of Sudan. It was a sad ending for Kenyans since this is the second time they are losing a match to a team that is not as strong as other teams in Africa. Mark you that Sudan is a country that suffered civil strife for more than decades while Kenya has been peaceful all along. The assumption is that the Kenyan team should be a better one because of the relative peace and stability that the country has enjoyed compared to Sudan. Well, but the reality shows that peace and stability cannot translate into good performance in football. One thing that I have noted whenever Harambee Stars play is that at the end of the game, fans always leave the stadium saying that the Stars have played well. But my question always is, what is the point of playing well without scoring? It is goals that matter at the end of the day and not the good play. Yes, we would like to enjoy entertaining football but it is only goals that help a team to advance in any tournament. Harambee Stars are right now in a very precarious position in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers just because they have not been able to score goals in the matches they have played so far. They have a number of games coming up in the next couple of months and they need to work extremely hard for them to advance to the next level. During the match, the fans did not help either since they were not in unison in their support for Harambee Stars. While some of them were making some feeble attempt to support the national team, the ever-passionate Gor Mahia fans were singing songs in support of their team, and spicing it up with a few songs in support of the national team. This shows that there is nothing holding us together as a nation and that is why the fans at Nyayo Stadium could not support Harambee Stars in one voice. But this should not be an excuse for the national team not to perform well and win their games. Fan support is just that, support and cannot really translate into goals. As much as it plays a part in boosting the moral of the team, it cannot be the main thing in any football match. With the Africa Cup of Nations still going on, the Harambee technical bench has a lot of work to do in the next few months in order for the team to have a chance of appearing in the next edition of the tournament.