Ombiji confident of victory in Maseru

By James Waindi

With Lesotho Under-20 coach Leslie Notsi declaring his team will give their home fans an early end-of-year present with qualification tomorrow, Vince Ombiji’s boys have an uphill task in Maseru, but given their impressive away form, the second leg could go either way.

Despite losing the first leg 1-0 in Nairobi last month, Kenya only need a 2-0 win to book a ticket for next year’s Orange Africa Youth Championships finals in Tripoli, Libya.

Coach Ombiji believes his side is more than capable of achieving the result against a team that knocked out favourites South Africa in the preliminary stages of the competition.

Lesotho, who beat Premier Soccer League side Bloemfontein Celtic’s reserve side 2-1 in a friendly last weekend only need a draw to qualify for the continental showcase.

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"I can see it coming. I can smell victory in Lesotho and I see the team featuring in Libya next year. I can tell you we are going to turn the table, but you may not find me on phone when we do that because we will all switch off our phones and celebrate," said Ombiji minutes before he left with the team to Maseru. The junior national team wasted a glut of chances including a second half penalty miss by Musa Mohammed, when they hosted Lesotho in Nairobi on September 25 and Ombiji believes his boys can play better away.

"We have a better record away than at home and it clearly shows because we have only scored two goals in our home fixtures but netted 15 away, including during our campaign in the Cecafa championships.

"If we beat Sudan 2-0 in Khartoum in front of more than 60, 000 fans I don’t think Maseru would be tougher than that," Ombiji said.