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Flames face Kenya today

 

Kenya’s Harambee Stars host the Flames this afternoon in a strength-testing match that will also be coach Ronny van Geneugden’s first game in charge of the Malawi national football team.

According to reports from the East African nation, the match is slated for Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos at 3pm local time.

Flames will use today’s match to prepare for Madagascar

The Flames will use the match to tune up for Sunday’s 2018 Championship of African Nations (Chan) preliminary round first leg against Madagascar away in Antananarivo. Kenya already qualified by virtue of being hosts.

Van Geneugden said in an interview before departure that he is “very excited” ahead of his first game.

“But as I said, these are early days and apart from applying the formation that we want to use against Madagascar, the friendly match will also provide me a chance to assess the players alongside my assistants.

“I [still] don’t know the players very well. So, this will be part of the process,” he added.

Van Geneugden and his lieutenants have picked five uncapped players, namely goalkeeper Lemani Nthala, defender Pempho Kansichili, midfielders Simeon Singa and Kelvin Hanganda and striker Manasse Chiyesa.

Except for Singa who plays for Wizards FC, the rest are from TNM Super League champions Kamuzu Barracks (KB).

Captain Dave Banda, the longest serving player in the 20-member squad, said: “The friendly match against Kenya is important because it will help us prepare for Madagascar in a number of areas such as game approach and coordination.”

According to team manager Peter Mponda, the Flames arrived in Nairobi on Sunday night in two groups.

“The first group [which included KB and Nyasa Big Bullets players] arrived earlier at around 7pm because they flew straight here from Lilongwe while the other group, which I was part of, arrived two hours later as we had to go through Lusaka in Zambia,” he said.

He got the feel of the match venue yesterday morning and had a rest in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Harambee Stars coach Stanley Okumbi named his final list of 23 players for the game on Sunday.

According to Kenyan media reports, Okumbi has called five new players and these are Western Stima midfielder Fred Shimonyo, his team mate Kennedy ‘Agogo’ Otieno, Posta Rangers’ Geoffrey Kataka, Thika United’s Collins Okumu and Mathare United’s Daniel Mwaura.

With the exception of Mathare United, Posta Rangers and Kariobangi Sharks players, the rest were expected to report in camp yesterday morning.

Gor Mahia players pulled out of the team last week after the club objected to release them as the friendly match does not fall on the official Fifa friendly calendar. n

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