Lesotho vs Kenya: Preview, Team News and Kick-Off Time as Harambee Stars Eye Positive Outing in South Africa

Harambee Stars will be back in action on Thursday when they face Lesotho in the first of back-to-back friendly matches against the Southern African nation this week.

Benni McCarthy’s men will take on Lesotho at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa, a venue mostly used by Mamelodi Sundowns, as the tactician seeks to gauge his players ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers that begin in September.

Kenya have Eritrea, South Africa and Guinea in their AFCON 2027 qualification group and will want a strong showing even if they are already qualified by virtue of being co-cohosts.

McCarthy has stated that he will use the matches to look at a new set of players given a number of those selected are in the team for the first time but he will want to win nonetheless even if it is a friendly.

Kenya, ranked 111 on the FIFA ranking, are favourites against a Lesotho team that are in position 145, and who have won just two of their last 10 matches, losing six over that period.

Harambee Stars head into the match on the back of their 1-1 draw with Estonia before thrashing Grenada 3-0 in the FIFA Series in March.

That ended a run of three straight defeats, having been beaten 3-0 by Ivory Coast, 1-0 by Equatorial Guinea and then an embarrassing 8-0 defeat to Senegal.

In their last 10 matches, Harambee Stars have won four and lost six, two on post-match penalties after 1-1 draws.

Meanwhile, Lesotho come into the game after beating Seychelles 2-1 in the preliminary round of the AFCON 2027 qualifiers in the second leg, after the first one ended 0-0 in March.

Before that, they had lost five straight matches, conceding a total of 16 goals and scoring just one over that period, before they beat Zimbabwe 1-0, following it up with back-to-back friendlies against Malawi, where they drew the first one 0-0 and lost the next 1-0 last November.

Kenya and Lesotho are not strangers to each other as they have faced off thrice before with Harambee Stars yet to win any.

Their first meeting was in July 2013 when they faced off in a COSAFA Cup match that ended 2-2 before they played each other a year later in an AFCON qualifier. The first match saw Lesotho win 1-0 at home before the two sides played out a goalless draw in Nairobi.

The game will kick off at 4pm (Kenyan time) with coach Benni McCarthy likely to hand debuts to a number of players.

Netherlands-based goalkeeper Caleb Kramer, who plays for Dutch side ADO Den Haag, English-based defenders Deon Woodman (Wealdstone FC) and Sydney Agina of Stoke City as well as forwards Sammy Hena-Kamau (Hull City) and Micah Obiero of Wealdstone FC are the players looking to make their maiden appearance for Kenya.

McCarthy also made late changes to the squad with Amos Nondi, Kelly Madada and Brian Bwire joining the team in place of Job Ochieng, Ryan Ogam and Byrne Omondi.