Football is a game of emotions; the suspense is riveting, the sadness - raw and the joy is genuine.
The victories are empowering and the defeats are crushing to loyal fans.
A goal is the ultimate sign of victory during a football match – it what matters most, what players passionately work towards and prevent from conceding.
In Kenya, football is a part of our culture- it drives conversations and bonds people.
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Our national team Harambee Stars has been the carrier of our hopes to appear in the World Cup for more than a decade.
Through the victories and the defeats, we rally behind our football heroes and show our undying support with hopes that one day we shall make it to the global competition.
Here are a couple of instances we almost made it:
2006 World Cup qualifiers
Our neighbours, Tanzania were the first to experience the brilliance that is our national team. After a barren draw during the first leg, the Harambee stars boys demolished a good Tanzanian side with three goals to nil.
In the second round, however, where we were grouped with Tunisia, Morocco, Guinea, Botswana and Malawi.
We finished fourth in the group failing to proceed to the next round.
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The most notable incident during the qualifiers was that the match with Tunisia at Kasarani was played behind closed doors due to crowd trouble in the match against Morocco.
During the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, Kenya’s prospects looked good.
We were grouped with Guinea, Zimbabwe and Namibia where we successfully qualified for the second round and achieved their highest ever FIFA ranking (79).
In the second round, we were up against Nigeria, Tunisia and Mozambique.
Out of six matches played we only won one against Mozambique at Kasarani stadium.
The last blow came was delivered by Nigeria at the Kasarani Stadium where Harambee Stars lost 2-3 in a titillating match.
We were eliminated from the qualifiers finishing last in the group.
Kenya picked itself up, making some technical changes in the run-up to the Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifiers. A move which yielded a more dominant side as was evidenced by impressive victories.
During the first match, Harambee Stars recorded a historic 7-0 aggregate scored against Seychelles comfortably moving on to the second round. In the next round, Kenya faced off against, Nigeria, Namibia and Malawi.
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Just when it seemed the country was about to proceed to the third round, we managed a barren draw with Malawi at Kasarani stadium resulting in a stillbirth for the Harambee Stars’ hopes of making it to the World Cup.
Fast forward to four years later to the World Cup 2018 qualifiers which looked to be the year of the breakthrough.
In the first round of the qualifiers, we beat Mauritius to sail through to the next round.
In the second round, we started off on the right note with the team putting up a spirited fight to edge out Cape Verde with a 1-0 win at Nyayo Stadium.
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However, in the second leg, the national team bowed out of the competition falling 2-0 to the island country.
Currently, Kenya is ranked position 113 in the world and even though we may not be featuring in the World Cup, that does not mean you should not watch the World cup.
And who knows, Kenya could still qualify for the next World Cup as FIFA increases the number of participating the teams from 32 to 48.
A move which will give Kenya and other underdogs the rare opportunity of setting foot at the highly coveted tourney.
