The Harambee Stars defender now says he is concerned with the dwindling standards of reigning champions K’Ogalo
Kenya international David Owino revealed the quality of players at Gor Mahia has reduced over the years, after they lost their first leg play-off of the Caf Confederation Cup against Napsa Stars on Sunday.
The Kenyan champions came up against the Zambian pensioners at Nyayo Stadium seeking a convincing win to take to the return leg but it was not the case as Daniel Adoko punished them with a thunderbolt in the 86th minute for the 1-0 advantage.
Owino, who was playing against his former club which he helped to win three league titles, has now admitted the Kenyan giants are a shadow of their old self and something urgent needs to be done to steady the sinking ship.
“The players we had during my time and the current ones are heaven and earth apart,” Owino said as quoted by The Star after the match. “The team assembled during our days had the capacity to beat any team in Africa.”
Owino also believes it is time for managers to invest heavily in clubs so they can perform well in continental football stating: “There is no big difference between the two countries as far as football is concerned but Zambian clubs take football as a full-time job unlike here.”
Owino who played for the entire 90 minutes as however, refused to rule out Gor Mahia from overturning the first leg result when the two sides face off in the return leg after a fortnight.
“It was a tough game and I must laud my teammates for sticking to the game plan throughout,” Owino continued. “Our plan was to remain compact and take a chance and luckily it worked for us. The return game will not be easy; it will depend on how each team will prepare for the match.”
On his part, Gor Mahia striker Nicholas Kipkirui remained optimistic of getting a positive result in Lusaka by explaining to the same publication: “We should not be written off yet, we have a chance to beat them convincingly in Lusaka and advance to the group stage.”
K’Ogalo coach Manuel Vaz Pinto and his men must now beat the pensioners with more than two unanswered goals on February 21 for them to progress to the lucrative group stage of the lower-tier competition.