McCarthy switches focus to TotalEnergies CAF CHAN preparations

After his first two matches in charge, newly appointed Kenya head coach Benni McCarthy has switched his attention to preparations for the TotalEnergies Africa Nations Championship 2024 (CHAN).

McCarthy was recently named Kenya’s head coach and had his first two matches in charge with the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against The Gambia and Gabon. Though it was baptism by fire as he had very few days to prepare, McCarthy says he has picked lots of positives from the experience and is looking forward to improving the team further.

“We had only three training sessions with the entire team and we all saw how the team plays. That should tell you something. I think everyone should be very much afraid of the kind of team we are building now. If we have more time, more training sessions and more scouting, then we will have a really great team,” McCarthy said.

Kenya drew 3-3 with Gambia, a thrilling comeback result in Cote d’Ivoire, and narrowly 2-1 to Gabon at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.

With the next round of World Cup qualifiers set for September, the South African legend’s immediate attention will now be shifted to the TotalEnergies CAF CHAN, which will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in August this year.

McCarthy says his focus is to build a strong team over the next few months.

“I haven’t watched many local games because I came in and immediately had to focus on the World Cup qualifiers. I had to rely a lot on the coaches who are there. But now, we have time between now and August. I will move around the country to try and see as many players as possible. I am also hoping that we can organize small camps in between with some selected players so that we get to build a team early enough,” the coach said.

He added; “We have to put up a very strong Harambee Stars side because we are hosting this tournament, and we can’t be there just to participate. We have to work to get out of the group stages and into the knockout rounds and that means, we need to get a very strong team.”

Debutants Kenya have been drawn into a very tough Group A that has former champions Morocco and DR Congo as well as Angola and Zambia who have both reached the semi-final before.