McCarthy: Kenya must learn fast after costly mistakes during match with Gambia

Harambee Stars head coach Benni McCarthy admitted his side paid the price for costly errors in their 3-1 loss to The Gambia at Kasarani but praised his players’ fightback in the second half, insisting the match was a valuable learning curve.

“Not what we expected, not what we wanted, but I think we never dropped our heads. Even after going 3-0 down in the first half, we kept fighting, we kept playing. But at this level, when you make the mistakes that we did, you get punished,” McCarthy said.

The coach highlighted the gulf in experience, noting that every Gambian outfield player is Europe-based, while Stars still field a mix of foreign and local talent.

“When you leave someone like Minteh, who plays in the best league in the world, one one-on-one, there’s only one outcome. That’s the difference, they take their chances,” he explained.

McCarthy credited substitutes Alpha Onyango and Manzur Okwaro for injecting energy after the break, which helped Kenya wrest control in the second half.

“People want to see a fight, people want to see passion. In the first half, we lacked a little of that, but in the second half, there was more energy. We could have gotten more than one goal today,” he said.

The coach was also left frustrated by two disallowed goals, saying refereeing decisions continue to work against Kenya.

“Until now, I don’t know. I thought they were clear-cut goals, but the referee and his assistants saw something else. It’s part and parcel of being a Kenya coach, you just accept and move on,” McCarthy said.

Asked about squad rotation and the use of home-based players who impressed at CHAN, McCarthy defended his choices, stressing the difference in levels.

“CHAN and World Cup qualifiers are two different worlds. No disrespect, but you can’t expect me to play the entire CHAN team against players from Serie A, Premier League and La Ligabwe’d lose 10-0. But yes, we’re integrating local players gradually, like Manzur, Alpha, Sylvester and Bryne Omondi,” he explained.

Despite the defeat, McCarthy pointed to positives as Kenya builds toward their next qualifier against Seychelles.

“This is a learning curve in the right direction. The second half showed what we can do now, we have to build on that and keep growing,” he said.

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