Williamson confident as Stars face Congo Brazzaville

Harambee Stars start their campaign for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals against Congo Brazzaville today.

It has been more than 10 years since Stars last featured in the competition and, as usual, at the beginning of every campaign, confidence levels remain high with coach Bobby Williamson predicting a good start.

“We have most of our good players in camp and this will certainly present a good selection challenge for us. We are hoping to have a good start so that we can maintain a good campaign going forward,” he said two days before the team left for Brazzaville.

The last time Harambee Stars played in the Africa Cup of Nations finals was in 2004 when the event was held in Tunisia and, according to Williamson, this will be a major motivation for his side.

“It is a good place to start our campaign and the fact that it has been long since we played in the campaign just gives us plenty of motivation going into this match,” he said.

Williamson is not worried about their opponents who took part in this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Equatorial Guinea and bowed out in the quarter finals.

“I would rather concentrate on my team and I believe the same thing goes for the Congolese coach.

“He is not worried about us but is busy preparing his team to face us and that is our focus.”

Prior to today’s match, Harambee Stars took part in the Peace Cup tournament in Rwanda where they finished joint top and Williamson admits that the two-day competition gave him an idea of where the team is.

“It was a great tournament that gave me an opportunity to identify the players that I need for various positions,” he revealed.

The biggest no show for Stars is number one goalkeeper Arnold Origi who failed to turn up after his club received a request to release him late.

In the absence of Origi, Gor Mahia goalkeeper Boniface Oluoch will be the obvious choice to start in goal.

Oluoch has been quite impressive with Gor Mahia this season, and his performance earned him a call up to the national team and he now faces the daunting task of performing well for the country.