Benni McCarthy Rues ‘Schoolboy’ Errors That Proved Costly for Harambee Stars Against Ruthless Gambia

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy feels his team have learnt their lessons after their 3-1 defeat to The Gambia in a World Cup qualifier on Friday.

Kenya found themselves 3-0 down after 38 minutes when a catalogue of errors allowed the visitors to score easily with Sheriff Sinyan heading in the opener from a Yankuba Minteh’s corner before the Brighton and Hove Albion man added the second after a poor pass from Harambee Stars defence was intercepted.

Another poor ball from Kenya in midfield handed Gambia possession with Johnathan McKinstry’s team launching a counter-attack which ended with Musa Barrow putting the ball past Byrne Omondi in Kenya’s goal and McCarthy admits the schoolboy errors from his side proved costly, something they must learn from.

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“Learning experience for our boys. Not what we expected or wanted but you never drop your head [and] after we go 3-0 down in the first half, we never gave up but at this level, when you play and you make the mistakes that you make that we did you get punished,” said McCarthy.

“When you have a Gambia squad where every outfield player and every player they have plays in Europe shows the level and quality they have and we have to learn if we want to find ourselves on that level.

“At this stage, when you make the mistakes we did, first goal and instead of trying to dribble at the back you lose the ball and they get the corner and from it people not just picking up their men and allowing players to get free headers inside the box and with the players they have, they play in Europe and will take the opportunities.

“You go 1-0 down and then you try to play through the lines with a simple pass want to play outside and they intercept and you get yourself one against one and Minteh plays in the best league in the world and you leave him one against one and there is only one outcome and then 2-0 down and then 3-0 down.”

The South African coach is, however, delighted by the response of his team in the second half as they did not relent in their bid to get something from the game even though Ryan Ogam’s late goal proved to be a consolation.

“It becomes an uphill battle but second half we made the changes, we brought in Alpha [Onyango] and Manzur [Okwaro] because of the relationship that they had playing in the CHAN and they brought us a little bit more energy and more fight and I think that is what people want to see when you put on the national team jersey,” he added.

“People want to see fight, passion and I think in the first half, we lacked a little bit of that and then in the second half there was more energy to it we could have gotten maybe more than one [goal].”

Harambee Stars have a chance to correct their errors when they face Seychelles in another World Cup qualifier in Nairobi on Tuesday.