{"id":143413,"date":"2026-06-08T16:02:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/delight-for-mccarthy-as-stars-crash-lesotho\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:02:46","slug":"delight-for-mccarthy-as-stars-crash-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/delight-for-mccarthy-as-stars-crash-lesotho\/","title":{"rendered":"Delight for McCarthy as Stars crash Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Kenya\u2019s Harambee Stars delivered a statement performance in their international friendly rematch against Lesotho, sweeping aside the Southern African side 4-0 in Pretoria to end June international window on a high.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After a frustrating 1-1 draw in the first encounter earlier in the week, head coach Benni McCarthy demanded a reaction from his players-and he got exactly that. Kenya looked sharper , more clinical, and far more aggressive from the opening whistle.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed Bajaber wasted little time in announcing Kenya\u2019s intent, breaking the deadlock in the eighth minute to give Harambee Stars an early advantage. The midfielder doubled Kenya\u2019s lead shortly after halftime, punishing Lesotho with a composed finish that shifted momentum fully in Kenya\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough allowed Kenya to play with greater confidence, dominating possession and creating waves of attacking pressure. Lesotho struggled to recover, especiaaly after being reduced to ten men in the second half, leaving gaps that Kenya ruthlessly exploited.<\/p>\n<p>Late in the match, Lawrence Ouma capped off a brilliant team display with a quick fire brace, scoring twice in the closing stages to seal an emphatic victory and silence critics following the disappointing first-leg draw.<\/p>\n<p>For McCarthy, the result marked a major improvement after concerns over Kenya\u2019s lack of cutting edge in the first meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The Harambee Stars coach had challenged his players to be more decisive in front of goal, and the response suggested lessons had been learned.<\/p>\n<p>The rematch also offered encouraging signs for Kenya in preparation to the 2027 AFCON finals which Kenya will co-host together with Tanzania and Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2027 AFCON qualifiers,Kenya are in group D along with South Africa, guinea and Eritrea, Tanzania are placed in group L where they will face The Super Eagles of Nigeria, Madagascar and guinea-Bissau, while Uganda are in group h together with Tunisia, Libya and Botswana.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbc.co.ke\/delight-for-mccarthy-as-stars-crash-lesotho\/\">Delight for McCarthy as Stars crash Lesotho<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbc.co.ke\/\">KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kenya\u2019s Harambee Stars delivered a statement performance in their international friendly rematch against Lesotho, sweeping aside the Southern African side 4-0 in Pretoria to end June international window on a high. After a frustrating 1-1 draw in the first encounter earlier in the week, head coach Benni McCarthy demanded a reaction from his players-and he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}