The national soccer team, Harambee Stars, seek to continue its fairytale run on the African Championship debut this Friday, August 22, 2025, with a clash against Madagascar at the Moi Sports Centre, Kasarani.

Under coach Benni McCarthy, Kenya has so far been the tournament’s dark horse after topping proceedings in the massively billed pool of death, which comprised Angola, two-time CHAN winners, Morocco and DR Congo and Zambia, the 2012 AFCON winners

 As the team looks to make a deep run in the tournament, People Daily analyses four aspects of adjustment and improvement the team needs to make heading to the decisive knockout stages.

Clinical Upfront

Despite adopting a more defensive approach in the group phases. Stars have argely failed to kill off games with the few instances they ventured forward.

Stars have been culpable of wasting clear-cut goal-scoring chances.

A case in point was the group stage tie against Angola and Morocco. In both ties, despite playing with one man less, Stars conjured up chances to steal the clash but ultimately failed to make them count.

Fittingly, McCarthy has decried such instances in his post-match press conferences while praying for more in front of the goal.

Interestingly, most of the chances involved instances that were potentially game-changing moments, the clash, or even deciding the game. Though those wasted opportunities never came to haunt the team, it should be an improvement to bury chances.

Disciplinary record

One of the Kenyan fans’ most worrying concerns has been the team’s affinity with red cards.

The two group-ties dismissals have Stars as the competition’s worst offenders, though much of it has been mitigated by the team’s ability to grind out results with a man less.

With elimination stages beckoning, the reckless tackles and petty cautions could come with adverse ramifications.

The knockoutphases, coming with the provisions of extra time minutes, imply that the magnitude of the task is double trouble, as the task extends beyond just clinching a win or draw in the regulation time.

As the competition enters the money stage, the unforced errors should be kept at a minimum, and so should the unforced errors and blunders from the team.

Adapting to a different game plans

Though the defensive aspect of it has been exemplified after Kenya fell to man less against Morocco and Angola, little of it has been in terms of chasing a game.

The delicately poised knockout stages saw Kenya fall to an early concession. So far Kenya has only conceded first in the clash against Angola.

Though the team responded instantly during the occasion, their readiness to adapt to different situations and scenarios could come into play in the elimination phase.

Impactful changes

The offensive changes in the team so far have been largely ineffective, with substitutes failing to stamp their mark. Other than Ryan Ogam and Austine Odhiambo, who rank as the men to go for the goals, the likes of Masud Juma, Felix Oluoch, David Sakwa, and others in the team’s offensive arsenal need to show they are ready for this stage and its demands.