By GILBERT WANDERA

Kenyan side Tusker bowed out of CAF Champions League going down 2-0 away to Egyptian giants Al-Ahly on Sunday.

The match played in Alexandria  was decided in the first half with Al-Ahly getting all their goals before the 40th minute.

Abdel Zaher scored first in the sixth minute before Ahmed Meteb added the second in the 38th minute allowing the African Champions to carry a 4-1 goal aggregate score into the second round.

Al-Ahly were denied a third goal in the 82nd minute when Tusker goalkeeper Boniface Oliech stopped a penalty by Da Silva.

For Tusker, it was another early elimination from the Champions League for the second year in a row. The team fell over the same hurdle last year when they were edged out by Rwandese champions APR.

But the match appears to have been hopelessly lost in the first leg, which Tusker lost 2-1 at home and were always facing a mountain to climb ahead of the return leg  given the fact that Kenyan clubs have never beaten Egyptian opponents at their backyard.

Focus on KPL

Tusker will now be forced to focus on defending their KPL title and attempting to win other domestic honours like the KPL Top Eight and the other cup competition.

The brewers became the second Kenyan side to bow out of continental football after Gor Mahia were eliminated from the CAF Confederations Cup when they failed to go past another Egyptian side ENNPI in the first round.

Gor Mahia needed to beat the Egyptian side 4-0 on Saturday but failed miserably as they were instead held to a barren draw.

Just like, Tusker, Gor also bowed out early from continental competition raising concern about the performance of local teams at the African stage.

Former Harambee Stars coach James Sianga says poor planning by local clubs is to blame for their early elimination from the continental stage.

Good strategy

Sianga, who guided Tanzanian club Simba to edge out Zamalek of Egypt in the CAF Champions League in 2000, says they did it due to good planning backed by a lot of help from the football administrators.

“We beat Zamalek 1-0 in Tanzania and then edged them out on post-match penalties 4-2 in the return leg to make it to the last eight for the first time in the history of Simba.

“All this did not happen from the blues,  it called for a lot of planning, preparations and world class motivation for the players. We played friendly matches against teams from South Africa, Rwanda and Ethiopia and in the end it worked.

“The problem with Kenyan clubs is assuming they can just do it without any form of investment.

“It does not work that way and unless the approach changes, they will continue to mark time at the same place and pretend that we are moving forward yet there will be no progress at all,” he said.

Siang’a also regretted that none of the Kenyan clubs featuring in continnetal stage had sought his advice on how to take on Egyptian opposition.

“The teams want to do it alone yet in other countries, clubs take advantage of retired coaches and players to get insight on how to succeeed. This is is how it should be,” said Sianga.