The Turkish tactician has named his final squad for the fixture against the Cranes at St Mary’s Kitende Stadium on Thursday
Harambee Stars coach Engin Firat has named rookie Nairobi City Stars midfielder Timothy “Babu” Ouma in the final squad for Thursday’s 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Uganda.
The national team left for Kampala on Wednesday in readiness for their fifth Group E match against the Cranes at St Mary’s Kitende Stadium in Kampala.
Also named in the squad are Armenia-based Alwyn Tera and Georgia-based Amos Nondi, as well as the returning duo of Anthony Akumu and Eric Johanna.
Firat, who will be in charge of his third match since taking over as the coach, is confident the squad will give a good account of themselves.
‘We want to end our campaign on a good note’
“We know we are out of the race to reach Qatar but I want my players to show me what they can do in such matches, it is a derby, they are our neighbours and big rivals but all we want is to end our campaign on a good note,” Firat told Goal.
“We cannot start talking now on why we are out of the race, it cannot make any difference and what we need to do now is to prepare and have a strong team for the future assignments.”
Harambee Stars captain Michael Olunga promised Kenyans a win after a disastrous start to their campaign.
“We want to win the game for Kenyans, it is unfortunate that we have not won any match in the campaign and for us to appease our fans, we want to beat Uganda,” Olunga told Goal.
“We know it will not be easy, we have played against them before and our matches are closely fought and difficult to get a winner, but we have what it takes to beat them this time around, we will go with confidence and I know we will get a positive result.”
The team jetted out to Entebbe on Wednesday and they are expected to hold their final training session later in the evening ahead of the ‘Migingo derby’.
Kenya are already out of contention to reach Qatar having lost two matches and drawn two but Uganda have a chance to qualify if they win their remaining two matches against Kenya and Mali.
Final Squad
Goalkeepers: Brian Bwire, Ian Otieno, and James Saruni.
Defenders: Joseph Okumu, Musa Mohamed, Abud Omar, Johnstone Omurwa, David Ochieng, and Eric Ouma.
Midfielders: Amos Nondi, Abdallah Hasan, Richard Odada, Anthony Wanbani, Kenneth Muguna, Duke Abuya, Alwyn Tera, Anthony Akumu, Cliff Nyakeya, Eric Johanna Omondi, Timothy Ouma, Samuel Onyango, and Clifton Miheso.
Forwards: Michael Olunga, and Ismael Dunga.