NAIROBI, Kenya, July 22 – Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye, has expressed confidence Harambee Stars will overturn their 1-0 deficit and overcome Lesotho in the home leg of their second round clash to progress to the 2015 Afcon group qualifiers.
A Bushi Moletsane’s 70th minute goal left Stars with a mountain to climb and need at least 2-0 win in Nakuru next weekend to advance as the regional governing boss calling upon his compatriots to rally behind the team.
“I’m sure Stars will qualify to the Group stage. What the team needs is support from everyone including the technical bench and sponsorship to motivate the boys.
“Kenyans want to see more matches and if they are really genuine about this, they should support the national team to the best of their abilities,” Musonye told Capital Sport.
The secretary general supported the move by Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to take the second-leg to Nakuru.
“People in Nakuru also want to watch matches too, it’s a good idea because it happens in other nations for example Nigeria where they take their matches to various venues like Calabar, Kano and Kaduna,” he added.
Stars suffered a huge blow when head coach Adel Amrouche was slapped with a one-year ban by CAF for allegedly spitting at a match official during their preliminary qualifier return leg against Comoros in May.
Kenya who have never been eliminated in the Afcon pre-qualifiers are likely to miss the services of key foreign based players including captain Victor Wanyama who might join his EPL side Southampton for the pre-season.
Norway based first choice keeper Arnold Origi, Belgian based duo of Lommel United midfielder Johanna Omolo and Genk winger Ayub Timbe were ruled out of the first-leg due to club commitments since the fixture was outside the FIFA calendar and remain doubtful for Nakuru clash.
The aggregate winner will join 2013 finalists Burkina Faso, Angola and Gabon in Group C.