Bandari coach faces tough test

Bandari midfielder Shaban Kenga battles for the ball with his Azam counterpart Ramadhan Said during their Cecafa Kagame Cup Group B match on July 12 at Huye Stadium. [Courtesy]

Bandari head coach Bernard Mwalala has called on his players to be ruthless in front of goal against Sudanese side Al Ahli Shandi in today’s ‘do or die’ first leg tie of the CAF Confederation Cup preliminary round at Kasarani Stadium at 4pm.

Having been eliminated in the first round of the same competition 3-1 on aggregate by Congolese side FC Saint-Eloi Lupopo in 2016, the former Kenyan international wants the dockers to ‘kill off’ the game today for them to keep their next round’s qualification hopes alive.

Last month, Bandari bowed out of the Cecafa Kagame Cup on their debut without a win after drawing all their three group B matches against eventual tournament winners KCCA (1-1), Mukura (2-2) and Azam (0-0).

Though Mwalala insists that all of his attacking players led by burly striker Wycliffe Ochomo and Yema Muama have recently been guilty of squandering chances, he is confident his forward line will finish off the job at Kasarani ahead of the return leg.

“In fact we have been working on our finishing in all sessions since we landed back from the Cecafa Kagame Cup. That was our main undoing in Rwanda, but we hope the work we have put in the last few weeks pays off,” Mwalala told Standard Sports.

“We’ve been surely creating those chances but we fail to finish them off in the final third. As a coach, that’s my biggest worry at the moment. To score is an instinct and it has to happen in a split of second. My work as a coach is to tell the player what to do, but when he gets that chance it’s up to him to decide what to do with the ball.

“But bottom line is, we just need to be ruthless in front of goal and kill off this game. This is a do-or-die match and if we really want to progress to the next round, we must be clinical.”

The former Nzoia Sugar trainer explained the importance of winning convincingly at home.

“We have to use our home advantage and win convincingly. If we don’t win, it will be a problem to us because we’ve to plan on how we will beat them away. But you cannot plan to beat a team at their own home ground. We don’t know about the conditions in Sudan, but for them it will be easy after the first leg because they would have known something about us,” he said.

But with a fully-fit squad at his disposal, Mwalala admitted that he has some tough selection decisions to make.

“This is a crucial match for us but the positive thing is that I have a fully fit squad to choose from. I am facing a selection headache because all players are in good shape. The morale is high and everybody is willing and determined to deliver."