NAIROBI, Kenya, January 28 – National men’s hockey team coach Willis Otieno says the All Africa Games in Ghana is a perfect opportunity to redeem themselves from the failure to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Otieno said they are determined to exorcise the ghosts of last year’s African qualifiers in South Africa with an excellent performance in Accra in March.
“The target of course is to finish as highest as possible. We need to at least perform better than how we did in South Africa so we have a challenge because right now we are not in the best place in terms of ranking. We will be working so hard so that we finish in a better position than what we did in South Africa,” Otieno said.
Kenya finished sixth at the Paris qualifiers — held in November — after a 4-3 loss to Nigeria in their fifth playoff match.
The team came back home with two wins — a 1-0 defeat of Namibia and 2-1 triumph over Zimbabwe — and three losses to Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria.
Turning his attention to the continental showpiece, Otieno said they are looking forward to meeting the aforementioned opponents again, hopeful of turning tables on them.
“Basically…the usual suspects…we have South Africa in there, Egypt, Ghana and of course, Nigeria. Those are the teams we faced in South Africa and we expect to meet them in Ghana,” he said.
The team are currently in non-residential training camp at City Park Stadium and Otieno revealed they will undergo a rigorous regime to whip them into peak shape.
“We need to work on every aspect of the game — defending, offense, setpieces, penalty corner, both offense and defence. I think those are the main areas in field hockey so if we can work on our defensive and offensive setup…getting the PCs and converting them I think we will be somewhere,” the coach said.
The team are a mixture of experienced and young players as well as from all tiers of the national leagues.
“We just went there and picked any good player…it doesn’t matter the club that you play for as long as you can fit in the setup of the national team. There are some teams that are not performing so well in the league but they have good players in their lineups. Everyone is represented,” Otieno said.
The team of 40 will be eventually whittled down to a final squad of 18 to do duty in the Ghanaian capital.
