The moment Harambee Stars’ defender Mike Kibwage stepped forward to take the decisive penalty kick against Madagascar on Friday evening, we all held our breath.
Reputed as one of the best centre backs in East Africa and for his composure, the gods could not have deserted him at a worst time. He blasted it off widely, and broke our hearts.
But football is as much a game of chances as is of heartbreaks. Penalty shootouts are particularly dicey affairs, player’s skill, experience, training and composure notwithstanding.
History is replete with penalty misses of football giants. Albanian Ledio Pano is perhaps the only outlier, with a penalty scoring ratio of 50 out of 50 attempts.
As we pick ourselves up from what was a fairly good run, a fairy tale of sorts, there are invaluable lessons we should reflect on.
The first is much more of an observation than a lesson. Kenyans really love their country. While it is true that they do not have much of a choice given the misery surrounding them, Kenyans take immense pride in their country.
Despite the internal incongruities that encompass them in ordinary life, Kenyans close ranks whenever paired against neighbours or outsiders. Nothing comes in-between their moments of national pride, not even politics.
Those who attended the Stars' matches in Kasarani can attest that the initial fears of “one-term” or “two-term” chants were grossly misplaced. And if any politicians hoped to cash in on this, they must have been thoroughly disappointed.
Two, there is great victory in our defeat. While Kenya lost in the quarters, the good run exhibited by our boys galvanised Kenyans around their national team. Before this, many of us had lost hope in Kenyan football.
The twists and turns of football management in Kenya have been one long, torturous affair for millions of us. People have invested a lot of emotions in football and paid for it with a string of heartbreaks.
With the events of the last month, we can see the Kenyan football star shining in the skies. Our collective hope is that it shines brightly ever after.
The reflection is on coaching. Good, independent and assertive coaching pays. Usually, spectators play better than the players. Allowing spectators to make coaching decisions has been the greatest bane of the growth of Kenyan football.
In some instances, coaches did not even have control over the selection of the team. Since Friday, there has been a lot of hubris about the choice of penalty takers, with every “expert”, including those who have never kicked a ball, offering “expert advice” on who should have taken the shots.
Going forward, we must cut this crap. Let us trust the coaches and evaluate them through proper metrics of success.
My fourth lesson is drawn from the level of investment we need to make on our national team before we expect good runs from it. The feeling you get from observing the flow of events is that we simply cobble up a team every other season, and try to beat into them a team-shape in the run-up to tourneys.
A long-term view or plan of identification, recruitment and building a solid national team at various levels of play is imperative. Football talent in Kenya is as plentiful as gold was in ancient Egypt.
It is however, a different thing to identify it, connect it with the same of its kind, and to manage it for the national good.
My last reflection is controversial. The unusual, enormous and financial reward that awaited our players upon every win may have motivated their performance.
However, for a country as inequitable as ours and where chances are not guaranteed, the promises may as well have induced a lot of pressure on the players.
I have not reflected on this deeply, but I do know that I have a lot of misgivings about monetary induced success. I doubt that we want to fully take this route and invite fellow Kenyans to reflect with me on it.
Senior Project Manager, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, member, Media Complaints Commission & Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
