In the ongoing CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN), Group A was called the Group of Death, inasmuch as Group D in Zanzibar looked more challenging.
Kenya did not appear able to sail through the above two-time winners, DR Congo and Morocco, and one-time winners, Angola. Only Zambia looked like a consolation prize where we could reap some points.
Then President William Ruto came out with a one-million-shilling reward (about 7,500 USD) for a win and half a million shillings for a draw. That gave Harambee Stars the impetus to beat DR Congo one-nil in the opening match.
The President honoured his pledge, and the players took their motivation against Angola, where they managed to grind a draw.
The next match against Morocco, which looked like an uphill task, could not beat the burning desire of new millionaires in town. Morocco fell by a goal to nil. The win against Zambia in the last match earned the team two and a half million shillings (about 19,000 USD).
Do not hire motivational speakers for Kenyans; just give them monetary rewards for their efforts. It was reported that a lady had offered players evening services for free, but I know the players value money more than flesh.
Kenyans have surprised CAF by filling up stadiums whenever Harambee Stars is playing. Fans breached security during the Morocco match, filling up Kasarani Stadium beyond capacity. This breach came after a slighter one against Angola that earned Kenya a fine from CAF.
Something had to be done, and the match against Zambia had tight security. Cars were diverted ten kilometres away to prevent fans without tickets from accessing the stadium area by public vehicles.
Meanwhile, Tanzania's Taifa Stars matches were poorly attended. Where Kenyans wipe out tickets from the portals within an hour, Tanzanians do not purchase tickets.
This comes despite their tickets being sold at the equivalent of half the price of tickets in Kenya. The government has purchased tickets for fans to attend their match against Morocco.
I went to watch DR Congo play Zambia at Nyayo Stadium on August 7, and I was disappointed. DR Congo fans, known for their love of music, did not sing and dance. This surprised me because they defeated Zambia by two goals to nil, with both goals coming in the second half.
One thing caught my eye, though! Of all the four countries in Group A, apart from Kenya, DR Congo had the most fans. Kenya is hosting a large number of Congolese refugees, which made the DRC to feel more at home. They managed to defeat Angola and Zambia but lost to Kenya and Morocco. Their government should be compelled to give us some gold every month now that Kenya is known for gold scamming.
Jilted lover
If Group D had remained in Kenya and Nigeria had played a match at Kasarani, I could imagine a crowd of Nigerians walking from Roysambu. Nigerians are also many in Kenya, where some of them have also featured for local clubs in KPL. They prefer to live in estates around Kasarani.
CHAN operates outside the FIFA ranking orbit because FIFA ranks national teams based on performance when their foreign-based players are playing. The quality of football has been very good, which brings out CHAN as the real measure of domestic leagues. Of the top ten countries from Africa, only Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa qualified for CHAN 2024.
Out of these, Morocco and Senegal have qualified for the quarter-finals.
In Uganda, South Africa failed to qualify for the quarter finals despite playing their matches in a stadium named after their icon, Nelson Mandela.
They played to a three-three draw with Uganda despite leading by three goals to one up to the eighty-third minute. Uganda won two penalties and equalised, thus enabling them to top the group. Uganda managed to recover from a three-nil loss to Algeria in their opening match to top the group after beating Guinea three-nil and Niger by two goals to nil.
Because Uganda only had one stadium, the last group match between Algeria and Niger was played at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi, on Monday, August 18. The last two matches had to kick off at the same time. It ended in a goalless draw.The
Nigeria vs Congo match in Group D was also moved from Zanzibar to mainland Tanzania.
The good thing is that despite the three East African states being outsiders in the African football set-up, they have all managed to reach the quarter-finals.
Only Uganda has a chance of meeting Tanzania at home for a semi-final match if the two win their quarter-final duels. If Kenya beats Madagascar, we will meet the winner between Algeria and Sudan in Dar-es-Salaam.
I can imagine Tanzanian fans buying tickets in droves just to come and boo Harambee Stars players, like the jilted lover who cannot resist peeping through her former lover's social media trail just to hate.