Benni McCarthy Identifies One Thing Harambee Stars Must Change to Win Consistently

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy believes his team can be more successful if they begin to start matches strongly.

McCarthy watched his team start sluggishly against Estonia in their opening match of the FIFA Series on Friday and concede after 20 minutes before improving remarkably in the second half to equalise and also had a number of chances to win the game but wasted them, to lose 5-4 on post-match penalties, after 1-1 in regulation time.

The South African coach says he has seen enough quality in his team and has faith that if they can start quickly and put teams on the back foot much earlier, they stand a chance of winning more consistently.

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“My team has good character, good personality because I think in the first half, we were a bit nervous but in the second half we showed this is Africa this is our soil,” McCarthy told the media in Kigali.

“As good as they [Estonia] were in the first half, like they have been together many more times than we have but second half, my team completely dominated so I am very excited for that,” he added, urging Harambee Stars to be more proactive in their approach and not reactive.

“Now I just need to get my team to do that from the first minute because if we do that, then we will be able to cause a lot of teams a lot of problems and we will be able to beat a lot of teams also. If we start fast and continue to play in the way that we did.”

McCarthy will be hoping to see that change in approach when his team plays against Grenada on Monday after the Caribbean nation lost 4-0 to hosts Rwanda on Friday.

That will be the third-place playoff at the four-team tournament with Rwanda and Estonia playing for the trophy.