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The Nairobian

OKUMBI TO THE RESCUE: Harambee Stars coach joins Harambee Starlets bench as an adviser

Football

By Rodgers Eshitemi | Nov 21, 2016

Harambee Starlet's Carolyne Anyango (left) and Raissa Feudjio of Indomitable Lioness of Cameroon during Friendly match at Kasarani Stadium on Saturday, Oct 22, 2016. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD] (R) Kenya Harambee Stars coach Stanley Okumbi against Liberia during their International friendly at Kasarani Stadium on Tuesday 15/11/16. Kenya won 1-0.PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

With Kenya taking part in the African Women Cup of Nations tournament for the first time, Harambee Starlets are leaving nothing to chance.

Having set their eyes on making the last four in the African showpiece, the national team has acquired the invaluable services of Harambee Stars, head coach Stanley Okumbi.

Okumbi is here to analyse Kenya's matches and his input is expected to come in handy for the Kenyan beauties.

The 35-year-old tactician flew to Cameroon on Friday, a few days after guiding Stars to two victories over Black Mambas of Mozambique and Liberia's Lone Stars at Kasarani Stadium.

In an interview with Feverpitch, Football Kenya Federation Vice President Doris Petra, who accompanied Okumbi to Limbe, said the former Mathare United coach is here to 'help' David Ouma's lean technical bench.

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"Being Harambee Stars coach, Okumbi has the experience and capabilities to analyse the game for us. He will do that job from the terraces. We only have David (Ouma) and Doreen (Nabwire) in Starlets' technical bench. The idea of bringing him is to at least assist in analysing the game," said Petra.

"He will always sit down with the Starlets' technical bench and discuss the team's performance after every match," she added after gracing Starlets' training session ahead of their Group B match against Ghana yesterday night.

"But he is not a member of the technical bench. He is just here to give a helping hand. He is here just to advise us on what to correct and where to improve, depending on the nature of the game. "

Petra was quick to commend the hosts for filling to capacity the 40,000-seater Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium during the hosts' 2-0 victory over Egypt in Saturday's Group A opening encounter.

The match, which was followed by a barren draw between South Africa and Zimbabwe, was graced by Cameroon's President Paul Biya and legendary Samuel Eto'o.

The head of delegation challenged Kenyans to borrow a leaf from the West Africans and support their own teams.

"The challenge is on how we can get Kenyan fans back into our stadiums. The huge turnout is a great motivation to any team when you are playing.

"In my opinion, that's something we should work on, not as a federation, but as Kenyans. We must love our teams and be ready to support them whenever they are playing; whether they are down or not.

"We should borrow a leaf from Cameroonians; what happened in Yaounde was amazing. Football has turned into business and indeed, if that happened in Kenya, we would be lifting the spirits of the players while at the same time giving clubs and teams revenue.

"If we can replicate that in Kenya, then we can really improve our game. Therefore, I kindly appeal to everyone to come back to the stadium and support our very own teams, just like the Cameroonians.

"It is not the duty of the federation to make them to come to the stadium. We only provide activities, then expect fans to come and watch the matches," added Petra.