WHY WE LOST:Lack of experience was Harambee Starlets’ curse, says coach Ouma

Kenya Harambee Starlets and of Ethiopia battle for ball possession during their Cecafa senior women Championship semi finals in Jinja on Sunday 18/09/16.PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

Harambee Starlets coach David Ouma confessed that his side was too inexperienced to match their opponents in the ongoing Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Cameroon.

Starlets bowed out of the tournament after losing all their three matches. They lost 3-1 to Ghana, 3-1 to Mali, before crashing 4-0 to Nigeria in their last group match.

The team arrived back on Monday morning.

“Despite being the first time for us to take part in the tournament, I think we could have done better, but our inexperience was obvious, especially when we were grouped against the big teams,” said Ouma.

“Majority of our players did not have more than 12 caps, yet in a country like Nigeria, the player with the least number of caps has probably 104. Competitively, we were at a disadvantage.

“Furthermore, our opponents from West Africa have been playing at this tournament for years on end. Therefore, they have the required experience to compete at this level,” he said.

Ouma admitted that his girls were not able to overcome the disappointment of losing their first match to Ghana, which affected their performance against Mali in their second match.

During the Kenya versus Ghana match, the centre referee made several dubious calls that included awarding Ghana a suspicious penalty.

“Against Mali, we were not able to overcome the disappointment of losing to Ghana. We simply lost our nerves against Nigeria and all this serves as a vital lesson for us,” he explained.

Ouma added that the humidity in West Africa also got the better of his team, but insisted technically, his team proved they can match their opponents.

“There are a number of lessons we have picked from the event and one of them is the need to be resilient and learn to fight hard especially when things do not go our way.

“At this level, things are different.”