Harambee Sand Stars squad trimmed ahead of Ghana clash

National beach football team Harambee Sand Stars head coach, Rajab Babu has trimmed his team that is preparing to play Ghana on Saturday.

The squad that is camping at Mombasa’s Travellers Beach Hotel was cut from 25 to 15 with the coach confident they will beat the West Africans in the first leg of their Africa Beach Cup qualifier.

“Beach football needs a lot of endurance and we have been working on that since last week and the boys are physically, psychologically and spiritually ready for the match.

“We respect our opponents as a tough nut to crack since they have been active in beach football for many years but we want to win and have an advantage in the return match next month at the Laboma Beach Soccer Arena in Ghana,” he underscored.

The winner of the two-legged clash will qualify for the continental showpiece to be held in Nigeria in December. The champions will represent Africa at the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Bahamas.

The Ghana national Beach Soccer team, Black Sharks arrive in the country on Tuesday evening ahead of Saturday’s match.

The Ghanaian side which will be looking for their quest for a second successive CAF Beach Soccer appearance and has named 18 players for the games to be played at Pirates Beach in Mombasa from 3pm local time (+3GMT).

The Ghanaian team is led by head coach Daniel Kottey Niiquaye and assisted by Thoephilus Nii Armah.

Both coaches successfully qualified the Black Sharks to the maiden edition of the CAF Beach Soccer AFCON in Seychelles last year and led them to seventh finish in the tournament that was won by Madagascar.

KENYA SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Daiddo Manasse, Rabaj Hamisi, Mohamed Musa.

Defenders: Farid Mbwana, Madi Hassan, Paul Kavula, Abdillahi Mohammed and Fahad Nassir.

Strikers: Mohammed Said, Mudhafar Swaleh, Fahad Hassan, Mwinyi Manzu, Victor Wawire, Omar Karisa, and Abduswamad Abdalla.

Technical bench: Rajabu Babu (coach), Kinero Swaleh (assistant coach), Jay Abdi (conditioning trainer), Ben Mbela (logistic manager), Rooney Oyando (team leader) and Festus (nutritionist)

GHANA

Goalkeepers: Gokah(Sunset Sports ),Adjei Gideon (Teshie United), Frank Mensah (Western Region).

Defenders; Semabia Reuben Larli (Sunset Sports), Aziz Kofi (Sunset Sports), Innocent Kumasah (Havedzi Mighty Warriors, Harold Acquaye (Sea Lions), Hussein Mohammed (Teshie United).

Midfield: Michael Sema (Sunset Sports), Alfred Torsu (Hevedzi Mighty Warriors), Richard Ossah (Wuo Gbee), David Mensah (Nungua United), Mattew Lamptey (Dansoman), Fredrick Kwevi (Gulf Powers).

Strikers: Wisdom Adoka (Teshie United), Dekpey Eugene (Havedzi Mighty Warriors), Ekow Badu (Central Region), Alexander Adjie (Sea Lions).