Wasteful Kenya's Gor on the brink of CAF Champions League elimination

   NAIROBI, Kenya, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Unless a miracle happens in Tunis, Kenya will have no representative in the second round of continental club football this season after Esperance de Tunis forced a barren draw against home titleholders, Gor Mahia FC on Wednesday.

   The perceived 'anti-football' ultra-defensive tactics adopted by the record Tunisian league winners in the opening leg of their CAF Champions League first round tie left a sour taste among Kenyan supporters in a game played in Machakos.

  The result continues the recent poor run by Kenyan clubs in continental football where getting knocked out at the initial phases is the norm, not an exception in what is a sorry indictment of the state of the game in the proud country.

  Gor have the Herculian task of forcing at least a scoring draw in a fortnight in Tunisia, a country where no Kenyan team has ever won a football match before, to qualify for the second round of the elite competition.

  The last time the 16-time Kenyan champions travelled to Tunis in 2014, they were on the wrong side of a 5-0 hammering and although the current team possesses enough quality on paper to avoid such a heavy defeat, Gor could pay dearly for failing to convert at least three guilt-edged chances that would have given them a platform to build on with a lead ahead of the second leg.

  "I'm disappointed with them. They came here to play for the draw and used time-wasting tactics to get it. We will go to Tunisia ready to fight and try to qualify by winning the tie," downcast Gor English head coach, Dylan Kerr, said after the game.

  His comments however, display the detachment to modern knockout football where the result, not play is the king.

  Playing on a soggy pitch and punishing attitude, Esperance coach, Faouzi Benzarti, set up his side to soak in as much pressure as possible without exerting his players, knowing too well the tie can be decided at their home ground.

  Having survived conceding in the first half, with Ugandan born Rwandese forward, Meddie Kagere and countryman, Jacques Tuyisenge the main culprits in blowing good scoring chances, Esperance put together a better performance in the second stanza in front of thousands of passionate Gor supporters.

  They could even have nicked a precious away goal midway through the second half when they were denied a penalty shout and in the end, they left the pitch having given their Kenyan hosts a lesson in what constitutes a clinical away performance in the elite competition.

  Gor's domestic arch rivals, AFC Leopards SC were eliminated in the preliminary round of the second-tier CAF Confederations Cup by Mauritian side FOSA Juniors FC having been forced to a 1-1 draw at home before the return leg ended 0-0 as the latter squeezed through on the away goals rule.

  The Kenyan champions who knocked out Leones Vegetarianos of Equatorial Guinea 3-1 on aggregate in the preliminary phase of the Champions League to book the Esperance tie are also on their way out unless they can summon the spirit of 1987 when they held the Tunisian giants to a 2-2 draw in the defunct CAF Cup (Mandela Cup).

  Another 1-1 draw in the return in Nairobi saw them stun Esperance to win the trophy to become the first and only Kenyan club to lift a continental club title.

  Since then however, Esperance has emerged as a force in African football, winning the Champions League twice in 1994 and 2011 while Gor, plagued by years of football turmoil within the club and Kenyan football as a whole struggled to match the might of their heyday in the 1980s.

  It represents the sad legacy of the rundown of the game in Kenya where leadership wrangles, lack of investment and poor infrastructure have combined to rob successive generations of local players an opportunity to shine at the biggest stage.

  Matters are not helped by having a cash-strapped Kenyan Premier League that is struggling to attract sponsors, with the competition unable to offer the country's representatives in continental football a formidable challenge to mix with the big boys.

  Kenyan teams can seldom afford to organise high profile friendlies ahead of such crucial games to gauge their abilities and work on areas needed to get the better of smart opponents such as Esperance since they can barely meet domestic obligations in the first place.

  This season for example, a row between the government and betting firms at the beginning of this year saw the affected companies pull out of sponsorship of the league and clubs leaving a huge financial gap the State is struggling to fill.

  It meant the said sides could not bring in quality players ahead of the continental campaign or prepare adequately for competition for starters.

  Gor had targeted this season to re-establish themselves as a power in continental football having won four of the last five domestic league titles with the feeling they are almost untouchable at home.

  They have raced to the top of the nascent 2018 Kenyan Premier League with 13 points from five games and are yet to lose this term but the fine margins of knockout football at the continental elite means they are still light years behind the top clubs in African football.

  Esperance departed for Tunis knowing half of the job was done as their Kenyan hosts were left licking wounds and crying foul over the time wasting theatrics led by man-of-the-match and goalkeeper, Moez Ben Cherifia, who made a string of saves to keep Gor at bay.  Enditem