Tusker ‘lacked commitment’ in Port Louis stalemate

Tusker FC players have been accused of lack of commitment in their 1-1 draw against Mauritian side, AS Port-Louis in their opening leg of their CAF Champions League preliminary round tie in Nairobi over the weekend.

Retired Tusker legend and former Football Kenya Federation Vice-president, Sammy Sholei, added the league champions were ill prepared for the contest that left them with a lot to do in qualifying for the first round of the top tier continental competition.

Sholei was part of the Kenya Breweries FC (forerunner to Tusker FC) team which reached the finals of the CAF Cup Winners’ Cup in 1994 before they failed to hang on to a 2-2 away draw to succumb to a shocking 3-0 loss at the hands of  DC Motema  Pembe in the return tie in Nairobi.

“The team lacked adequate preparations. I fail to understand why they never played friendly matches against teams that have Champion’s League experience.

“When you are champions, it means you are the best in your country so when your play against local teams and you are going to face teams from outside the country what kind of preparations are these?

“During our days, we could go Uganda and Tanzania by bus you to test ourselves against great teams that is not happening now,” the former Kenyan international told Citizen Digital.

-Physical strength-

Sholei noted that most Tusker players lack physical strength to deal with opponents who are more aggressive.

“You look at some of these players and you see models. They are weak, they can’t tackle hard, they have weak shots and poor passing basic tactics of pure African football is missing,” he lambasted.

Tusker put up a sluggish performance throughout the match and never threatened to add into their tally after going 1-0 up through defender Shafique Batambuze as the Mauritian giants levelled the contest in the second half.

Port Louis players averaged 23 years the former Kenyan international says Tusker players lacked sharpness and blamed it on Kenya failing to align its domestic football with the FIFA calendar.

“When you win the league in November you are at your peak. December is a festive season and you go waste yourselves in the village while in other countries, the leagues are going on.

“When you start your pre-season in January, there is no way you are going to match them at all because most of our local teams start from zero. The calendar has to change if we want success in continental football,” Shollei underscored.

His sentiments were echoed by another club legend Paul Onyera.

“It’s true the boys looked heavy and could be as a result of unfitness or fatigue due to intense training. You could see they struggled to maintain their pace but all is not lost, we still have a chance to win the away match and Tusker have always played better away from home even in the Premier League last season,” Onyera maintained.

The second leg will be played in Mauritius on Sunday with Sudanese giants Al Hilal awaiting the winner of the tie in the next round.

Tusker head coach George ‘Best’ Nsimbe is intent on retaining the same squad that did duty at Safaricom Stadium, Kasarani on Saturday.

“We will attack from the first whistle to the last. We must get goals very early in the match and we are working to rectify our mistakes and plan for the best in the second leg,” Nsimbe told Citizen Digital.