As the ‘It is coming home’ chants slowly abate following the conclusion of the Euro finals, national U23 full back Lewis Bandi has assured that the tune will not fade out utterly as the team intends to clinch the regional tournament. Bandi made it to the 23-man squad which jetted to Ethiopia on Wednesday for the tournament set to run between Sunday to the final day of the month in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.Safe and sound. Ready for the big task ahead 🙏#Tunaweza💪 #EmergingStars pic.twitter.com/lMTSWZNejM— Harambee Stars (@Harambee__Stars) July 14, 2021 The team, widely known as Emerging Stars had its first training session on Thursday evening ahead of their group C opener against Djibouti and later with South Sudan.The versatile AFC Leopards player who was part of the U20 team which reached to the semi finals of the tournament held last year in Arusha is confident that they will deliver the trophy if their preparations and quality in the squad is anything to go by.Besides sending Bandi to the tournament, Leopards also have Austin Odhiambo and Marvin Nabwire are also in the team while Collins Shichenje withdrew to work on the final touches of his move to Greece. Bandi who can deployed on either of the defensive flanks and in the midfield said their lengthy stay in residential camp at Kasarani helped them gel and hatch a plan of smarting their way to the final and eventually lifting the gong.”It is certainly coming home. The technical bench assembled talented players who are hungry for the title. We had our first session on Thursday afternoon and it was evident that the players are ready for the first match against Djibouti whom we can not afford to underrate, ” he said.Here is the #EmergingStars traveling squad that will head to Ethiopia tomorrow for the CECAFA U23 Championships.👉https://t.co/ktLZESuLEs pic.twitter.com/ULwspunajL— Harambee Stars (@Harambee__Stars) July 13, 2021 The tournament was initially set to kick off on July 3 but was pushed back under unclear circumstances but will now kick off on Sunday.Group A is made up of Uganda, Tanzania and invitees DR Congo while pool B is constituted by the hosts, Eritrea and Burundi.
