Kenya U20 football team – Rising Stars – will on Friday afternoon kick off their participation in the Four Nations Tournament when they face Zimbabwe U20 in one of their two fixtures set to be played at the Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe, Malawi.Kenya’s second game in the friendlies will be against the hosts on the final day; Sunday 24 March.##NAJAVA_MECA_7970590##While it will be Kenya’s first touch of the grass in the 1500 EAT kickoff, Zimbabwe on Wednesday kicked off their journey in the tournament in a thrilling 3-2 loss to Malawi’s U20 team at the Silver Stadium in Lilongwe.After going down early to a Madalitso Safuli goal in the 33rd minute, Zimbabwe were able to brave hosts’ pressure and equalized through Denzel Mapuwa, who capitalized off a blunder from Malawi right back Kondwani Tebulo.Malawi would then take the lead again via two quick goals from Emmanuel Saviel in the 56th and 59th minute, before Mapuwa got a consolation in the eventual loss.Based on the tournament’s format – that the team with the highest points after two games will carry the day – Kenya’s goal on Friday will be to keep pace with early leaders Malawi, and add more misery to Zimbabwe.The team, which will be led by Bidco United head coach Anthony Akhulia after he stepped in as a replacement for Salim Babu who was shockingly left out of Thursday’s traveling bunch, has had adequate preparations in readiness to the games.EXCLUSIVE: Salim Babu left behind as Kenya U20 jets to MalawiHaving been in camp for over two weeks, the provisional squad played out in two matches against Tusker Youth and Talanta Hela Select, registering 2-1 and 3-1 wins respectively.With so much experience in the squad released early Thursday, the expectation is that the team will go all out for the championship.Speaking ahead of the game, Akhulia said: “The tournament is very important to us. The team that is here is the same that participated at CECAFA Cup and Uganda beat us in the final. I want to see the progression of the team. I want to make sure the team grows.”Joshua Onyango, Timothy Ouma included in Kenya U20 final squad to MalawiOn their opponents, Akhulia said the result against Malawi shows that Zimbabwe are a good team.“Zimbabwe is a strong side. Their result just shows the game was competitive. But with all due respect to Zimbabwe, we will work hard and try to win the match comfortably.“I think we are well prepared. We are playing two matches and we are hoping we will win both matches and emerge victorious.”His opposite number, Simon Marange, said they have worked on their shortfalls and this time they will be more aggressive.“There isn’t much difference from what we did against Malawi. We just have to be more aggressive and a bit more intentional when we have the ball.“One of the things we will work on is our defensive transition, because we conceded two goals from having the ball, then they won it back and created a chance and scored.We will be working on that to make sure when we have the ball, we have the right distances so that we don’t succumb to attacking transition.” He said.
