Kenya has one of the most developed football industries on the entire continent of Africa, and this is easy to tell. The Kenyan league is one of the largest on the entire continent and has some of the best players produced within it, that go on to play for large clubs around the world. So it is not surprising that Kenya is turning out to be one of the favorites for the victory in the Africa Cup of Nations this year. Despite this, there are certain doubts among both fans and players, and certain things need to be considered before sweeping statements are made about the victory of the team. This includes the football predictions being made by the professionals in the field, the expectations of the fans for the performance of the team, what the coach is saying and finally, how the team is actually feeling about its ability to perform in the championship. Let’s have a quick overview of all these topics and maybe gather, from this, how the team is going to be performing.
The games to be played
Kenya performed exceptionally well in the qualifying stage, gathering up enough points throughout the games they played against Ethiopia and Ghana with ease and speed. But that was only the beginning of the championship and the easiest part of it as well. Now the team will be facing some stiff competition from some of the best teams in the continent, and the tough times are going to be from the very first days of the game.
The team is going to be facing Algeria, Tanzania, and Senegal in the very first week of the competition. All three of these teams are considered to be some of the favorites or at least some of the best teams in the entire championship. All three performed outstandingly in their qualifying matches and will not be coming full force into the game, so Kenya is definitely going to be seeing a lot of harsh competition. But it seems like the predictions being made across the board are assuming that victory should not be discounted, not as easy as some people are doing it. The Kenyan team is stacked full of great players and it has shown that it is more than capable of playing better than most teams in the cup this year. So the expectations for the team are set high.
The coach and the team
Sebastien Migne, the coach of the team, is saying that he will definitely be going for the title of the champion this year. According to him, even despite not having the chance to qualify in 15 years, Kenya will be the breakout champion this year as all of the players on the team are in top shape and some of the best players the team has had in about 15 years. He expects the competition to of course be tough, but he is also expecting the final result to be one that he is planning on, with the cup coming back to Kenya for the first time in many years. The team shares the vision of the coach but is cautiously optimistic in their evaluation of what the games are going to look like. They do not expect the games to be easy, but they also expect to be able to take on anyone within the championship without losing.
It is hard to be making predictions in terms of the ones who are going to be the victorious champions of the cup. All of the teams are incredibly skilled and all of them have shown strong potential, but Kenya is definitely one of the many favorites that are capable of showing the entire continent that, even though they haven’t participated in 15 years, they are going to be winning the title without an issue.
