A good friend of mine asked me a question that got be pondering about the future of Kenya’s national football team Harambee stars with regard to the coach.
He asked me, "Elijah, do you think coach Engin Firat is the man to aid us in having the best preparations for 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon)?"
I posed for a second, and I said:
"It's still too early to predict. He first has to get us to 2025 Afcon, then we'll see after that.”
So I decided to look at the pros and cons of the Turkish tactician, and in conclusion, I came up with these findings.
Let me begin with the pros. First of all, handling the current Harambee Stars is not child's play because the team is currently in a transition, with younger promising players trying to stake a claim. I have to say that the quality in the league is not at its best, and so the pool of players to choose from is small.
The football system in place has done our players a disservice in not equipping them in the best possible way in order to compete at the highest level, technically and tactically, but somehow there are a few who have managed to overcome the challenges and find themselves being courted by European clubs.
They include Timothy Babu, Stanley Wilson, Austin Odhiambo, and Ronney Onyango just to name a few.
They, however, don't come to the national team as the finished article, but that is the scenario in Kenya.
The coach still has to work with them despite the limited time to sharpen them at the national team.
Looking at the players who have been integrated into the system such as goalkeeper Bryne Odhiambo, Alphonce Omija, Timothy Babu, Austin Odhiambo, Ronney Onyango, and Sylvester Owino, they seem to be handling the pressure with consummate ease and I believe it has got to do with the coach and his technical bench.
Though it's still early to make a clear judgement, the signs are promising.
Secondly, let’s look at the competitive games that Kenya has played under coach Firat. Kenya has played 10 games in the qualifiers for 2025 Afcon, 2022 Fifa World Cup, and 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers under the Turk.
Kenya suffered three losses (once against Gabon, and twice against Mali), posted three victories (against Rwanda, Seychelles, and Namibia), and drew four matches (against Uganda, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, and Burundi).
In that same period, we have scored 12 goals, and conceded 11, so we have a positive goal difference with Michael Olunga being the top scorer on four goals, followed by Masud Juma and Duke Abuya who have two goals apiece. Out of the 10 games Kenya played, the team only failed to score four times - against Mali twice in coach Firat’s first two games, against reigning African champions Cote d'Ivoire, and against recently reinstated Zimbabwe against whom nine top Kenyan players were missing, including captain Michael Olunga.
The defence has kept three clean sheets against Seychelles, African Champions Cote d'Ivoire, and against Zimbabwe.
If you look at that record it doesn't scream, “fire me now!” It's a relatively acceptable record although we should have beaten Uganda were it not for the goalkeeper's howler and the coach's naivety, in my view, against Gabon but I shall address the latter in the cons.
Thirdly, more often than not, we have historically (in recent time) watched Harambee Stars' games with our hearts in our hands. There is always an accident waiting to happen. The defence also didn't give fans the aura of confidence but that seems to be a thing of the past.
Apart from the mistake by Joseph Okumu in the friendly match against South Sudan in Nairobi, the glaring school boy gaffes the team makes when the pressure is cranked up seem to be fading away.
As I eagerly watched Harambee Stars' match against Nambia, my attention was drawn to the composed nature of the two centre backs - Okumu and Sylvester Owino. Owino was making his second appearance for the team, and never at any particular point showed nervousness.
That's progress and with the more high octane games coming ahead, the hope is we'll only get better.
As I mentioned, there were games where in my opinion I envisaged the coach employing pragmatism in certain situations. In his first game against Mali, we were left too open and the West African giants cut through us like a hot knife through butter.
Firat’s over confidence in his tactics was witnessed again against Gabon, when Kenya took the lead away from home and instead of consolidating the lead, we kept on playing as if we were desperate for another goal and we ended up losing.
His tactics are a double edged sword. Stars play a certain way and we stick by it. When it works, it's perfect but when it doesn't, it leaves room for naysayers to have a go at Firat, but he seems to have readjusted if the performance against Namibia is anything to go by.
Secondly, the coach has a love-hate relationship with the fans as he keeps imploring fans to lower their expectations. Well, fans will be fans. Each fan wants his team to do well and a good number don't put things into perspective. All they want is their team to even beat the world champions if they play against them. Firat needs to let the fans dream and when things don't go his way, just accept and say we'll improve in the next game. It will reach a point where he's go to "excuses" that Kenya doesn't have stadium that meets Fifa and Caf standards.
Kenya has only been to two editions of the African Cup Nations finals in 30 years, and mocking the number of players we have in Europe's top five leagues will be history (that's if he lasts beyond this year).
If he fails to qualify Kenya for 2025 Afcon, why keep him?
For now, let's throw our weight behind him and back him unequivocally till the end of the Afcon qualifiers in November. We hypothetically need three wins, two draws, and a loss to qualify.
We already got one win and a draw. Surely, getting the other seven points shouldn't be too difficult. Anguka nayo Firat!
