As Starlets savour second place finish at Cecafa, focus on AWCON finals

Harambee Starlets' Neddy Atieno and team mates are welcomed by Safari Ngoma on arrival from CECAFA Tournament in Uganda on Wednesday, Sept 2016. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

The national women football team’s focus now turns to the Africa Women Cup of Nations(AWCON) finals set for November in Cameroon, according to coach David Ouma.

Speaking after the team arrived in Nairobi, Ouma said the 2-1 loss to Tanzania provided his side with a learning opportunity ahead of AWCON finals.

“We could have done better but then again it has given us an opportunity to learn about our shortfalls ahead of the major Nations Cup,” he said.

Ouma, however, said he was satisfied with the performance of the team and thanked FKF for the support given to the team.

“Going into this tournament we prepared well, playing in good facilities and this motivated us a lot.

“When we went for the international tournament in Spain this was also very motivating and we knew we would do well in the regional tournament,” Ouma said, yesterday.

The tactician noted the tremendous improvement of the team since qualifying for AWCON finals.

“We played against Ethiopia in the Cecafa semi-final and we picked a win. Ethiopia is a good team and posting a win against them is a plus for us. It wasn’t that easy but the girls were determined to do something special. This shows that the team has matured and I hope with good preparation, we will have positive results in Cameroon,” he said.

Compared to other matches played in the continental qualifiers where Harambee Starlets has conceded in all matches, at Cecafa, the team conceded only four goals that came in the semi-final against Ethiopia and the final.

“We have been conceding goals in all our qualifiers and I hope that the trend will not continue since we are looking for ways to avoid that. This will come in with good preparation,” he said.

“We want to work on the mental capability of the team. The trend has been that we start strongly in tournaments but then again we are not able to go all the way,” he said.

Ouma also pointed out that playing Ethiopia last Sunday is one of the positive aspects he has picked from the regional tournament.

Team captain Ann Aluoch said while they would have wanted to win the tournament, they are still satisfied with finishing runners-up.