Mulinge prays for kind draw as KPA aim to conquer Africa
KPA coach Sammy Mulinge gestures during their training session at the KPA Makande Gymnasium on May 1, 2023. The team is preparing for the African Clubs Championship to be held between May 8 to 21 in Tunis.
What you need to know:
- KPA are expected to leave the country on May 8, but first things first, Mulinge has to trim his squad of 16 to 14 that will do duty in Tunis.
- Another prayer item for Mulinge, selecting the right men for this job!
A kind draw and an injury free squad.
These are the two items high on Sammy Mulinge’s prayer request this week as Kenya Ports Authority finalise their preparations for the African Clubs Championship.
The Dockers, who will be making their third appearance at the continental event, have pitched camp at their Makande base in Mombasa where they have intensified training with only a few days left to the competition to be held between May 8 to 21 in Tunis.
Mulinge, who has overseen KPA’s transformation from a nearly team to a regular participant at the African event, will once again lead the team in Tunisia as they look to better their fifth-place finish in the last two editions.
But the experienced tactician admits a kind draw will take them closer to the medal bracket even as they flag Kenya’s alone after local champions General Service Unit (GSU) pulled out due to financial challenges.
“There will be more teams this year so this year’s edition will definitely be more competitive compared to the last two. We still don’t know which teams will be in Tunis but we are ready for all scenarios.
“If we get a kind draw it will certainly be a big advantage for us because it means we can top our pool and create a good path for ourselves. Our target is to get to the podium because this team is capable of achieving that. This is our third appearance so we have to show we have learnt something,” Mulinge told Nation Sport on Monday at KPA Makande hall.
Mulinge will be without the pair of Lewis Ogutu and Enock Mogeni in Tunis with the former having decamped to Kenya Forest Service and the latter joining Japanese side Oita Miyoshi.
He has however backed the youthful middle blocker Brian Kamonde and star opposite Peter Kamara to step up.
Serve-reception and blocking, Mulinge insists, will be key to KPA reaching the business end of the competition that has proved elusive for Kenyan men’s teams. Kenya Prisons are the only team to have reached the final in 2011 where they lost to Al Ahly 3-0.
“We have been training on these two aspects because good reception will be key to us getting our attacking formations right. At this level, you have to try to play in-system as much as possible to make scoring easier.
“Our defence is also coming up well and it’s just a matter of time before the team gels completely. Good execution of service will force our opponents to play off-system and we can capitalize on this to score through blocking,” explained Mulinge.
“The boys are responding well to training and you can see the cohesion and bonding is building up well. We are grateful to the KPA management for offering us this opportunity to train together for two weeks even though we had hoped for one month. We are about 50% ready but I hope by the end of the week we will get to 70-75%,” he added.
KPA are expected to leave the country on May 8, but first things first, Mulinge has to trim his squad of 16 to 14 that will do duty in Tunis. Another prayer item for Mulinge, selecting the right men for this job!
