Odongo calls on Lionesses to 'clean up' after fifth-place in Nairobi

Kenya Lionesses coach Simon Odongo does not feel that his team are too far away from success in HSBC SVNS 2.

Last weekend in Nairobi, Odongo’s team finished fifth overall in the round robin competition, while Argentina, South Africa and Spain finished on the podium.

“If you look at our results, the margins were less than seven points,” Odongo told The Star. “If we clean up certain facets of play, we will be in contention to win matches.”

Odongo’s assessment is more than fair. Against China his team lost by three points. Against South Africa the margin was only two. Against Argentina it was five. Their most damaging defeat was a 14-5 loss to Spain.

When picking over the weekend’s results, the Lionesses boss could quickly name the areas where he wants to see improvement.

“Looking at the overall picture, we struggled at kickoff restarts in many games and our decision-making in some matches — where we chose to kick instead of pass or ran into opponents instead of looking for space,” he said.

“In regards to kick-off reception, we don’t have tall girls, so we have to adapt and improve the lifter and the catcher going forward.”

Odongo now has a month to prepare his squad ahead of further HSBC SVNS 2 stops in Montevideo and São Paulo.

A top four finish in the overall standings will give teams a place at the HSBC SVNS World Championship and a shot at gaining a place HSBC SVNS Series, everything is still very much to play for.

Now blooded after a weekend playing in front of ferocious home support, the head coach believes that the only way is up for his squad.

“A good number of the girls are not yet accustomed to playing in a big stadium,” Odongo said. “They have to get used to it going forward and make the right decisions in both attack and defence.”