Harambee Stars skipper Michael Olunga had a lackluster game in the barren draw against Uganda Cranes with FC Talanta head coach Ken Kenyatta blaming the midfield lack of services.Olunga rarely touched the ball in the Cranes box with the Halid Lwaliwa and Murushidi Juuko affording him less space to have any chance of threatening upfront.The Al Duhail forward’s afternoon was exacerbated by the fact that he was starved off service and was forced to feed on scraps with most of the passes he received were long balls.Harambee Stars defensive midfielder Richard Odada on his debut , playing for Kenya.#Tunaweza#RoadToQatar2022#HarambeeStars pic.twitter.com/1NW1frpBNd— Harambee Stars (@Harambee__Stars) September 4, 2021 Kenyatta noted that midfielder in the game did not ease Olunga’s work with Lawrence Juma who is fresh from a spectacular season with Sofapaka being subbed off in the half hour mark with Eric Johanna replacing him. “I cannot blame Olunga, he played alone upfront, midfielder should supply strikers as quickly as possible so that strikers should have the ball every time but when our midfielders had the ball they were outnumbered and did little,””Uganda were physically strong, you could easily tell that they had prepared the team well but we did not play any friendly matches to help us with our preparations for the match,” said Kenyatta in an interview with KTN.Uganda lost a friendly against Ethiopia where they had pitched camp to acclimatize to the high Nairobi altitude in the build up to the Harambee Stars clash.Kenyatta emphasized on Kenya adequately preparing for the World Cup qualifiers by setting up a number of friendly games which he noted would boost their chances of qualifying for the intercontinental tourney. ~It’s a must win match ~ Harambee Stars Midfielder Kenneth Muguna#Tunaweza#RoadToQatar2022#HarambeeStars pic.twitter.com/azQbwg1vT4— Harambee Stars (@Harambee__Stars) September 4, 2021 “Uganda prepared well and they played their friendly out of the country so they came with a positive mind of winning, they were unlucky that they did not win the game,””I will always support Harambee Stars because I have played for it and it’s my number one team, preparations will give us a better chance of qualifying for the World Cup, we didn’t not play like we were at home and rarely attacked,” added Kenyatta.
