NAIROBI, Kenya, June 17 – Harambee Stars coach Antoine Hey is confident his team will deliver nothing short of victory when they play Mozambique on Saturday.
Speaking to an assembled press corps after Stars Wednesday’s morning workout at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani Hey said that his charges are well motivated for the crunch Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
“Everybody is prepared and focused. We know the job we have to do on Saturday and we are going to win, no excuses,” said Hey who will be handling third competitive match as national coach.
Stars have lost their first two qualifiers to Tunisia and Nigeria putting them out of contention of qualifying for next year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The importance of putting Mozambique to the sword is not lost on the former Liberia and Gambia coach who knows that a positive result against the Mambas will hold them in good stead.
“We have to win this home match because if we do so we are in the driver’s seat towards qualifying for the Cup of nations and we want to take this opportunity with both hands,” said Hey.
“Mozambique is a very decent side. We respect all our opponents but one thing is for sure is that Kenya will win this game,” he added.
Kenya is currently bottom of group B and without any points while Mozambique are third with a single point.
Hey also expressed his disappointment with that slightly more than half of the capacity of Kasarani Stadium will only be allowed through the gates to watch the qualifier.
“Its very disappointing but we hope that crowd will be here and support us because its what we need at home because its not just the national team that is qualifying it’s the entire country,” said the German.
“When we were in Abuja, the atmosphere there was absolutely fantastic when they filled the stadium and we saw how they (Nigeria) responded to that, so home support is crucial,” he added.
Football’s world governing body FIFA instructed Football Kenya Limited (FKL) to admit only 36,000 spectators through the Kasarani turnstiles after Kenya failed to meet safety requirements for the world cup qualifier against Tunisia at Nyayo National stadium in March.
FIFA also slapped a Sh624,000 fine on FKL for the debacle.
On the field, Hey expects his players to be finding the target unlike in their previous encounters where they spurned several goal mouth opportunities.
“What we need is concentration and confidence in front of goal to score and when we score that first goal I expect more to come,” said Hey.
“We have a lot of talented strikers capable that are capable of scoring lots of goals and scoring the first goal is what we need but we are not doing it at the moment,” he added.
