By Robin Toskin

What direction do we go now after failing to qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and Africa Cup of Nations in Angola?

Many suggestions have been put forward including a radical surgery of Harambee Stars playing unit by roping in youngsters and letting the current crop to ‘eat their retirement benefits.’

Some also suggest that all foreign-based players should be overlooked as we begin to build a team for 2012 Africa Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea/Gabon.

All these thoughts come amid a round verdict that Harambee Stars played ‘very well’ against Nigeria although they lost 3-2 at Kasarani.

Never mind that Kenyans are peculiar people who despite knowing that history is written by victors, they are willing to settle for second best.

Harambee Stars before playing Nigeria at Kasarani on Saturday.

For the purists like Capital FM’s Sports commentator James Wokabi, there is nothing to write home about Stars’ performance except that they played ‘roho juu’ (local slang for playing with emotion).

He is not far from truth because the Nigerian’s relied on their technical ability both as team and individually.

Forget about the controversy leading up to Yakubu Aiyegbeni’s goal. The Nigerians may have been lucky to benefit from referee Eddie Maillet’s weaknesses but if you asked former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, he would tell you, ‘you create your luck.’

The idea, which I submit today, is we have to move from playing roho juu to improving the technical aspects of our players.

A case in point is our defending which the ‘Technical Council of Elders’ admitted is not good for anybody with heart problems to watch.

Four goals we conceded from the blind side. It was always easy to drop the ball behind our fullbacks and opponents capitalised to wreak havoc on Harambee Stars. In Abuja for instance, a long searching ball was dropped behind our left back and Obinna Nsofor rattled the roof of the net.

In Maputo, Tico Tico Bucuane fired into our net after yet another searching ball bounced behind Stars’ defence.

Fast-forward to Kasarani, and two goals against Nigeria arrived because we could not mark the blind spots allowing the Super Eagles to cash in.

So, ‘very well’ as we may have played or very bad as we may have defended what is the way forward?

This is my submission.

If we played well as everyone seems to say then we should maintain the same team for the Orange Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup. The simple reason is that the team has momentum, especially its movement, which was at times good against Nigeria.

After the Orange Cecafa Challenge Cup, there is the Africa Nations Championship, which will flow into the premier 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The idea behind having the team with this momentum is borne out of the fear of breaking up a team like Antoine Hey did with Francis Kimanzi’s outfit.

But we shall not have all the players in that starting line up. Dennis Oliech, Musa Otieno, Victor Mugabe and Emmanuel Ake may not be available. If Patrick Osiako will be available and Allan Wanga who has intimated he will be around, they should all play a prominent role in the Challenge Cup.

It is also time to try out Kenyan Premier League winning captain James Situma as holding midfielder alongside Gor Mahia’s impressive anchor Peter ‘Pinches’ Opiyo.

Julius Owino (Gor), George ‘Wise’ Owino (Posta Rangers), John Njoroge (Yanga), Jockins Atudo (Tusker), Edgar Ochieng (Mathare United should be retained. George ‘Blackberry’ Odhiambo (Gor), Abdulwahab Musa (Bandari), David Otieno (Sony), Abdulatif Omar (Thika United) and Geoffrey Kokoyo (Ulinzi) among others should be introduced whenever the team is winning to slowly integrate them into the national team.