In a match played in Kampala on Monday, Harambee Stars lost by a single goal to Cameroon. This score line was a huge improvement from the Friday fixture in Yaoundé, where the Stars conceded four times and scored ones. Tisini tracked key events during the match and data collected reveals that indeed, the Kenyan men’s national team side did put up a better fight. 

Harambee Stars Improved Attacking Metrics

Despite not scoring in the game and losing the match, ultimately, Harambee Stars had a better attacking performance. Overall, in the Kampala match the team was more adventurous, ending up with 11 shot attempts. The stand out here was that 6 of the 11 attempted shots (54.5 %) were from inside the box. Two of the shots from inside the box were on target (33%) while only 1 of the 5 shots (20%) from outside the box was on target. Harambee Stars ended up having 27% of their shot attempts on target. 

It was an improvement from Yaoundé, but way below the opponents. Cameroon had a total of 8 shot attempts with 4 (50%) on target. The opponents ended up working Kenya’s goalkeeper more, as Bryne Odhiambo made 3 saves while Andre Onana made only one. The Cameroon defense however, was forced to make 3 blocks in this match.

Harambee Stars had 11 box touches, same as Cameroon, and 2 box carries. Captain Michael Olunga with 5, led the team in terms of box touches. In the previous fixture, he only had 2 meaning he received the ball in more advanced positions in Kampala. Harambee Stars also had 6 key passes in this match.

Midfield Struggles

In fact, the team improved in terms of progressive passes with 9 attempts, 3 of them being accurate. In total the team had 247 passes with 224 being accurate. However, Kenya’s midfield continued to struggle to command possession of the ball. Center back, Johnstone Omurwa had the most pass attempts with 45 with his partner, Joseph Okumu, second for the team with 36.

Bryne Odhiambo, the goalkeeper, also saw a lot of the ball with 21 pass attempts. He did well in terms of goal kick distribution with 8 of his 9 (89%) attempts being accurate.

Looking keenly at progressive passes, the most attempts are again from the backline. Joseph Okumu led the team with 4 progressive passes with 2 of them accurate. The fullback Eric Ouma had a progressive pass attempt that was not successful making it 5 out of 9 for the backline. The midfielders Odada and Anthony Akumu attempted one each but both were inaccurate. The other 2 came from forwards, with Jonah Ayunga having an accurate progressive pass..

Eric Ouma’s Cross Contribution

Other attacking metrics from the Harambee Stars were much better in Kampala. In Yaoundé, none of the team’s cross attempts managed to find a team mate. For the return fixture, Kenya attempted 17 crosses with 5 (29%) of them being accurate. 

Eric Ouma led the team in crosses, attempting 9 and successfully completing 4 of them. This means, of Harambee Stars' 5 accurate crosses, Eric Ouma delivered 80%. The other accurate cross was by Rooney Onyango who attempted 6 in the whole game. All of Kenya's crosses from the left side were delivered by Eric Ouma. Duke Abuya and Joseph Okumu each contributed one cross from the right side, while Rooney delivered the remaining six.

Star Player

It was a marked improvement attack wise despite yielding no goals. Striker Olunga had 6 shots with 3 on target. All of his 9 passes found a team mate and he created 1 chance. Defensively, he had 1 clearance and contested 1 aerial duel. He had a crucial interception in the oppositions half that led to a  quick attacking transition but the shot was skied. Olunga finished the game with the a Tisini rating of 6.9 to lead his teammates.