Harambee Stars Coach Satisfied with ‘Fair Result’ Against Rwanda as Winless Run Continues

Harambee Stars assistant coach Vasili Manousakis has picked positives from his team’s goalless draw against Rwanda, terming it a “fair result.”

Kenya ended their September-October international window without a win as the draw in the friendly match came after a 1-0 loss to Guinea and 1-1 draw with Eritrea in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Head coach Benni McCarthy made five changes to the team that lost in Guinea and gave a run to all the players who had not featured before but while there was an improvement, they still lacked the cutting edge in attack.

A couple of wasted half chances in the first half preceded a second half where Kenya did not impose themselves on the game but Manousakis says the objective was different in Kigali.

“We played opponents who had won their two games before in the AFCON qualifiers so we knew it was going to be tough but we tried to play a little bit differently,” he said after the game.

“We set up a little bit differently and we took the players a little bit out of their comfort zone and tried to give everybody a run. So maybe different objectives for us to have a look at a couple of youngsters and overall, I think a draw is a fair result, and at halftime, we felt we had the better half chances and second half we did not create too much.”

The South African coach is impressed by how the players performed with his only concern being a lack of fitness which he blames on the delayed kick off of the FKF Premier League.

“We are happy with the application from the players, concentration levels,” he added.

“Fitness lacking here and there because the Kenyan Premier League hasn’t started but all in all, it was a good exercise for us and as coaches, we got out what we were hoping to get out and from a result point of view, we would like to finish off with a win but it wasn’t to be.

“However, there are bigger objectives. We have a plan for AFCON and it was one of those matches which we had to try a couple of different things.”

Kenya will now turn their attention to back-to-back tough assignments against South Africa in the AFCON qualifiers in November.