Kenya U-23 lose to Egypt in All-Africa Games qualifiers

Harambee stars defender David Owino battles for the ball with Relakoti Mokhaahlne Lesotho during their Africa Cup fo nation qualifier match on 03-08-2014.PHOTO/DENNIS OKEYO

National Under-23 side went down 3-0 to Egypt in the first leg of their 2015 All-Africa Games qualifier played on Sunday in Cairo.

The results leave Kenya with a mountain to climb in the return fixture to be played after two weeks as they have to score four goals to make it to the next round.

After holding on for a good part of the first half, the Kenyan juniors cracked at the stroke of half time allowing Rami Rabiaa to open the scores.

Then in the second half Mahmoud Kahraba scored a brace as the Egyptians walked away with a huge win ahead of the return match in Nairobi.

Sunday's results is the second time Bobby Williamson is losing to an Egyptian side. He was in charge when the senior team went down 1-0 to Egypt in an international friendly match late last year.

However, even before Sunday's match Williamson had predicted a tough encounter for his boys after a period of poor preparations.

"With most of the clubs having resumed training in preparation for the KPL, it has been a big challenge to get a full team. Most of the time, we have had no more than 14 players training at any one time," he said last week.

Williamson also did not have Sofapaka and Gor Mahia players as the teams were involved in continental football at the weekend and needed their best players.

While the Kenyan team struggled to get good preparations, their opponents were in Europe for almost one month and even asked that the match be postponed from the initial date to allow their key players to be available.

The performance of the Under-23 side capped a bad weekend for Kenyan teams who were featuring in international competitions.

Sofapaka were edged out of the preliminaries of the Confederations Cup match after going down 2-1 to FC Platinum, and the women's national team lost 1-0 to Egypt in an international friendly at Machakos.

KPL champions Gor Mahia, however, made it to the first round of the CAF Champions League tournament despite losing 3-2 to CNaPS away in Madagascar.