Harambee Stars coach speaks out after Europe trip

ALL STARS TEAM TREATED FOR LUNCHEON SportPesa All Star coach Stanley Okumbi(left) receives a cap from Ambrose Rachier(right) chairman KPL when SportPesa held a luncheon for the team. PHOTO:WILBERFORCE OKWIRI

Okumbi: We picked valuable lessons from Spain

Tactician challenges his players to make good use of what they learnt.

Harambee Stars coach Stanley Okumbi says he picked valuable lessons from the recent tour of Spain with a Kenyan Premier League (KPL) All Stars side.

The team played two friendly matches against Spanish second division two side Cordoba, which they lost 4-0 and Seville Atletico who beat the Kenyan side 1-0.

“We trained for just three days prior to travelling to Spain for the tour and this included a friendly match against Posta Rangers. Our opponents had fantastic training facilities and is a team that has played high profile matches against the likes of Real Madrid and Spain.

“We gave it our best and to concede just four goals in the first match was not such a bad result though I still feel that we gifted them the first two goals. In the second game, we decided not to open up and that is why the score was low,” he said.

“If we had played another two or three matches perhaps we could have won one of them. All in all, it was a great learning opportunity and we picked some valuable lessons which will we will apply in the national team as we prepare for both the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and the Africa Nations Championships.

“Some of the lessons we have picked is the need for players to be quick on the ball, have better ball handling skills, movement on the pitch and defending,” said the coach.

He challenged players who made the trip to take the experience to their clubs so as to make the league better and in turn improve the quality of the national team.

Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier who also travelled with the team said he hopes the players and officials have picked some lessons to make the league better.

“It was never a question of winning but learning. The tour was part of KPL’s capacity building in partnership with our sponsors,” he said.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa called for patience pointing out that the federation has embarked on a long term process of rebuilding local football.

“No one wants to lose by a big margin but it is the kind of results you get when you play on bad pitches like we do here.”