NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 20 – Police FC coach Anthony Kimani believes that the team can pick a positive result against Ethiopia Coffee this weekend, and progress to the second preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup.
Police were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by the Ethiopian side in the first leg played at the Nyayo National Stadium on Sunday, and they need to either force a scoring draw in Addis or win the reverse fixture this weekend.
“I think overall we played really well. We were trying to build from the back, passing really well, but we lacked the cutting edge in the final third. We had some very good chances which we feel we should have put away,” Kimani, who has come in to work with Salim Babu, said after the game.
The former Mathare United and Harambee Stars defender, who left Ulinzi at the close of last season, was brought in to fulfil CAF club licencing requirements as he has a CAF A licence, which Babu, the head coach, does not have.
But, Kimani says it doesn’t matter the title of who is coach or not, but the technical bench is working in unison to ensure the team succeeds.
“We work together as a team on the technical bench. Coach Babu is a very experienced coach and everyone brings their thoughts together for the good of the team,” Kimani said after Sunday evening’s duel.
He says the team will work more to improve offensively as they travel to Addis and he believes they can pick a good result.
“We have seen how they play and we know what to expect when we go away from home. We know that we need to work a bit on our attack because most aspects of our game was really okay. It will be tough definitely but I have no doubt that we have the personnel to get a result,” Kimani added.
Police were thrown into disarray just less than 24 hours to kick off when they were informed that influential midfielder Kenneth Muguna would be unavailable to play the match due to an erstwhile four-match suspension.
Muguna was handed the suspension in 2021 after a scuffle with the referees during his time at Gor when they lost to Zambia’s Nkana. He served two of those matches while with Azam, and served the first of the remaining two, in the duel against Coffee.
He will only be available for Police, if they make the second round.
On the match, Police’s midfield combo was further broken down when new signing Brian Musa was stretchered off after just 12 minutes in what looked like a nasty ankle sprain. Already, the team is missing the services od David ‘Messi’ Owino with injury.
“Of course those are very key players in our squad and their absence was felt. For Messi, we are hopeful that we can have him back. We are still waiting for clearance for Musa,” Kimani noted.
