QUARTER FINALS:
Monday: Burundi Vs Sudan (2pm), Rwanda Vs Zanzibar (4pm)
Tuesday: Uganda Vs Zimbabwe (2pm), Tanzania Vs Malawi (4pm)
Kenya was eliminated from the 2011 Cecafa Tusker Challenge Cup, following a dismal performance and a 1-0 defeat by Sudan at the National Stadium here in Dar es salaam city on Saturday afternoon.
Sudan, on the blink of being sent home before the match, played tactfully and the jaded Kenyans had no answer. Later in the afternoon, Harambee Stars would only squeak into the quarter-finals if Tanzania Mainland beat Zimbabwe 2-0 in the last Group ‘A’ match. The results however ended 2-1 in favour of Zimbabwe, a guest team in this tournament which finished second behind table leaders Rwanda. This automatically made the tournament organizers book the flight for the Kenyans back to Nairobi tomorrow morning.
If Tanzania had won 2-0, with Kenya and Zimbabwe on three points each, Harambee Stars with a -1 goal difference would have edged Zimbabwe [-2] as the second of the qualified third placed teams. Zanzibar, third in Group ‘B’ were best losing team with four points while earning their place in the quarter finals. However, Zimbabwe trashed this computation early in the match when Daniel Ngoma scored in the first minute to give Zimbabwe a 1-0 lead.
Then Said Maulid scored in his own goal to give the Zimbabweans a 2-0. Uganda will now have to play Zimbabwe in the third quarter final on Tuesday at 2:00pm before Tanzania plays Malawi in the last quarter final game. At the point when Zimbabwe led 2-0, Kenya still held on to hopes if Zimbabwe went on to thrash Tanzania by a 4-0 margin. But it was the hosts who fought to pull back a goal through Mwinyi Kazimoto who converted an 85th minute penalty, shutting out the Harambee Stars.
There was however some talks of disciplinary problems in the Kenyan camp that ended with Jamal Mohammed and Paul Were being left out of selection. Some fans blamed this early exit on poor team selection. But also, since coming to the tournament, the Kenyans seemed unmotivated, murmurs indicating that Football Kenya Federation [FKF] had not paid player wages since they assembled in Nairobi preparing for the Challenge Cup.
The FKF chief executive officer, Lordvick Aduda, was in Dar es Salaam during the early stages in the tournament before leaving for Nairobi, promising that he would return with money for the players. He could not be seen until his team was eliminated.
Meanwhile Tanzania Mainland were also outplayed by Zimbabwe who won 2-1 in the second match of the afternoon, but the home team, defending champions at the 12-team tournament, managed to qualify for the quarter finals as the second of two best runners-up sides from the three pools. Zanzibar, who awaited the results of the final day to know their fate, were in the quarters as the best runners-up team. Sunday is a resting day and action resumes on Monday when Burundi plays Sudan in the first quarter final before Rwanda takes on Zanzibar.
