3 reasons why Kenya’s Harambee Stars will have a successful AFCON tournament

Tokeo la picha la haambee stars

Kenya qualified for the African Cup of Nations tournament for the first time in 15 years. The Harambee Stars will be in Egypt to fight it out with the continent’s best football teams in a bid to be crowned as the kings of African football. Sebastian Migne’s side is in group C alongside the Lions Of Teranga from Senegal, Riyad Mahrez’s Algeria and East African neighbors Tanzania.

After a 15 year absence from the showpiece event, not much is expected from the Harambee Stars but there are reasons for optimism heading into the tournament that kicks off from June the 21st in Egypt. Below are 3 reasons on why Harambee Stars will cause a few upsets at the African Cup of Nations.

Strength in the team

Tokeo la picha la haambee stars

This is without a doubt the best football team the country has produced since 2004! In fact, one would make an argument that the team we have right now is better than the one that qualified for the Tournament in Tunisia 15 years ago. For starters, the captain play in the best league in the world, the English Premier League and two days from now he will be playing in the Champions League final!

Micheal Olunga is relatively young but he has bags of experience and is the first Kenyan player to play and score a hattrick in the Spanish La Liga. Francis Kahata is a genius of the game and has the quality to unlock any defense with a single pass. There is quality and leadership all across the pitch which should only act as a positive heading into the Tournament.

Underdog status

Tokeo la picha la haambee stars

Senegal and Algeria are everyone favorites to qualify from group C. Kenya and Tanzania are not expected to make it past the group and based on Kenya’sperformances in the qualifiers, ruling them out is completely wrong. Harambee Stars beat West African giants Ghana at home and narrowly lost in the away leg thanks to a goalkeeping error with barely 15minutes of play left.

Should Sebastian Migne’s side get a result in the first match against Algeria, confidence will be sky high when they take to the pitch to play the next 2 games and as the saying goes, in football, confidence is everything! Harambee Stars will approach the matches against Algeria and Senegal as the underdogs which suits Sebastian Migne’s style as he very much loves to play on the counter-attack. Being underdogs plays right into the team’s strength.

Zero pressure to win

Tokeo la picha la haambee stars

Football is best played when there is no pressure to win. Senegal and Algeria are the clear favorites thus the pressure will be on them to win against Harambee Stars. This will give Migne and his team all the time they need to implement their plan which will be involving a lot of sitting back and absorbing pressure while hitting the opponent on the counter-attack, as he did against Ghana in both qualifying legs.

As the theme in this article dictates, not much is expected from us which is why any kind of result, goal or even attacking move will be congratulated. The players too have personal objectives which do not involve losing and will give it all they have, like in the qualifiers.

Do you think Harambee Stars will have a successful AFCON? Share your thoughts in the comments section below..

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