Champions Tusker leave for Mauritius today knowing that they would have to score if they are to stay on course to become the first Kenyan club to reach the group stages of the Caf Champions League.
The brewers were frustrated in a 1-1 draw against Port Louis last weekend and anything but victory on Sunday will see them follow the well beaten path by Kenya clubs, an exit in the preliminary round of Africa’s most prestigious club competition.
with Caf having expanded the group stages to have sixteen teams up from the usual eight, it was hoped that this would be the year when a Kenyan club would end their absence among the elties.
But once again, the football calendar looks destined to undermine those lofty ambitions as a well off pace Tusker let slip a one goal lead to share the spoils with the Mauritius champions.
Once again, it ignited the debate over whether the country need to change its football calender to the international one, where leagues begin in August. No less than Football Kenya Federation (FKF) vice president, Doris Petra, suggested that such a move was long overdue in discussion on her social media pages.
Inpsite of the monumental task that now lies ahead of them, Tusker coach George Nsimbe remained positive that they could get a result.
“ I still believe we can go to Mauritius and come out with a good result. Today everything didn’t seem to work the way we had prepared. The passes were off when we were in the opponents half and we didn’t put them under the pressure. We needed to to force mistakes and capitalise on them. We made one simple mistake and they punished us. That is the way it is at this level but it is not the end of the road for us,” said Nsimbe.
The brewers are likely to be without winger Danson Kago, paving the way for Jackson Macharia to get into his boots. Defensively, Tusker will still have to contend with the absence of defender Eugene Asike while the form of skipper James Situma will be a source of concern with last weekend’s match his first competitive bow since recovering from a knee injury. Nsimbe will have to go in an all out attacking formation with Allan Wanga perhaps likely to be partnered up front by Michael Khamati or Stephen Owusu.