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Harambee Stars’ flowing football that cumninated with 2-0 win over rivals Uganda Cranes and one all draw against Burundi at the ongoing Cecafa tournament in Ethiopia jogged my memory to the national team of 1987.
This surprising win comes at time when Gor Mahia just won the league unbeaten — and could clinch a treble if they win the forthcoming GoTV Shield.
In 1987, Harambee Stars German coach Reinhardt Fabisch (diseased) assembled a team that left a mark during the 4th All Africa Games held in Nairobi. Incidentally, K’Ogalo had had a great year managing a treble after winning the Kenya National Football Super League cup, Moi Golden Cup and Africa Cup Winners Cup (The Nelson Mandela Cup).
I wrote here a few weeks ago that Gor’s lucky number is nine (9). In 1987 for instance, K’Ogalo’s top scorer in the continental games was Peter Dawo who scored nine goals with his head while playing as a number nine.
Fast forward: In the recent match pitting Uganda Cranes Gor against Harambee Stars, lead striker Michael Olunga who is a Gor Mahia forward, played as number nine and scored Stars’ second goal!
It is worth noting that the 1987 win came nine years after the team’s first attempt at a final in 1979 — when they were humiliated by Cameroon’s Cannon Yaounde. Remember the 1979 Harambee Stars beat Uganda Cranes 3 – 1 on their way to the final where they lost to Malawi 3 – 2 at the City Stadium.
When Fabisch selected his team for the continental games he simply picked nine players from the then red hot K’Ogalo squad.
They included David ‘ Kamoga’ Ochieng, Peter ‘Bassanga’ Otieno, Austin ‘Makamu’ Oduor, Abbass ‘Zamalek’ Magongo, George ‘Artillery’ Nyangi Odembo, Charles ‘Engine’ Otieno, George ‘Fundi’ Onyango, Peter Dawo and Sammy ‘Jogoo’ Onyango.
These players had played together for at least three or four years. They knew each other very well.
My point is that a team that has trained, eaten and lived together has a sense of fluidity and cohesion.
The Gor Mahia team back then had been together under the same coach. They were also doing well in the continental campaign that began before the All Africa Games in August and ended in December 1987.
Come 2015, K’Ogalo is sweeping any trophy that comes its way. Their twin strikers in Ugandan-born Rwandan Maddie Kagere and Olunga scored 33 goals between them.
Harambee Stars coach Bobby Wiliamson is in dilemma since most of his players have not practiced together for long. He has to produce some decent results at Cecafa.
That’s why he would rather play Boniface Oluoch, David Owino, Collins Okoth, Anthony Akumu, Michael Olunga, Ali Abondo, Musa Mohamed and Harun Shakava.
Although ‘Teddy’ Akumu and Owino are no longer with K’Ogalo, they left hardly a year ago. These players can gel very well even in the national team.
That was a deft move by the coach. It might just pay off.
In future Cecafa tournaments and CHAN qualifiers, we should change our selection strategy. Whenever our national team has little time to practice, the officials should throw caution to the wind and pick majority of players from the leading club that year. In any case such players have been tried and tested.
Germany did this by recruiting majority players from Bayern Munich. South Africa picks from Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, Tanzania from Simba and Yanga while DRC raids Vita Club and TP Mazembe. In any case, coaches of leading local clubs have already done a thorough job training the boys for a longer period than the national coach.
And what’s more? Harambee Stars can draw support from the diehard K’Ogalo fans who will closely identify with their ‘adopted Harambee Stars’ as a surrogate partner.
It is easier for Gor coach Frank Nuttall to be Bobby Williamson’s conveyor belt.
