Oliech's take on Harambee Stars loss

“I am happy with the overall performance and request that the players be given more time to learn one another and as a team,” he said.

Oliech was full of praise for Michel, pointing out that the Frenchman has brought a new mentality in the team, proving that he has what it takes to raise football standards in the country.

“He is a professional. Most players have never experienced some of the things he has introduced.

“Given enough time, we should raise our game and become a powerful force in Africa,” he said in a telephone interview from Mwanza.

Oliech also pointed out that majority of the local players in the team are finding? it challenging to adopt to Michel’s new? system. He has called on more build up matches.

“Unlike the previous years, the bulk of players in the team now are? locally? based and some of the things Michel is trying to introduce is a bit difficult for them to grasp because they do not do them in the local league.

“Therefore it is taking a long?-time to get the results we want.

“However, with more friendly matches like this, we should be able to overcome such a handicap,” said Oliech.

He thanked the federation for organising build up matches for the team and predicted that things can only get better.

“The new office led by Sam Nyamweya has shown a great vision to turn around football after we played against South Africa last month. This is good for Kenyan football and sponsors must support them to take our football to the next level,” he said.

Tuesday’s loss was the second under the new coach.? The team lost 2-1 to South Africa in Nairobi last month.

Taifa Stars scored the goal early in the match after Aggrey Moris took advantage of Jerim Onyango’s indecision to clear a corner ball.

Speaking from Mwanza, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) official Hussein Terry said: “Apart from the goal, we dominated this match and should have won, but we take issue with some of the calls made by the match referee.”