Odemba reveals key lessons as Harambee Starlets fall to Ivory Coast in WAFCON preps
By Joel Masibo, March 5, 2026Harambee Starlets head coach Beldine Odemba has revealed the takeaways that her side picked up as the Kenya women’s national soccer team lost by a solitary goal to hosts Ivory Coast in a second international friendly match staged in Abidjan on Wednesday night, March 4, 2026.
Rebecca Ello scored the only decisive goal for the West Africans in the 22nd minute, helping her side register a back-to-back win in their WAFCON preparations, having beaten Benin last weekend.
For Harambee Starlets, it was the second successive defeat for Beldine Odemba’s girls in the buildup matches, having lost 2-0 to Benin on Monday, March 2, 2026.
Speaking on the two defeats, Odemba focused on the importance of the friendly matches ahead of the upcoming 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco between Tuesday, March 17 and Friday, April 3, 2026.
Picking the positives
”First of all, it is really good that we have played international friendlies; they give you the real picture of where your team is and what to work on,” Odemba said.
“My takeaways: we really need to work on the girls mentally and psychologically. Second, we need to work on where we think we have to sharpen. We need to sharpen our attack; we need to start getting goals. We are creating chances, but we are not getting goals,” she added.
She also said the two ties gave the new members in the team a chance to experience the magnitude of international assignments.
International exposure
”The friendlies have also helped us see the combination of different players, the new members in the team need to understand what the international stage is, such international friendlies always give that feeling,” Odemba said.
Kenya, making her second appearance at WAFCON, is in group A in this year’s WAFCON alongside Algeria, Senegal, and hosts Morocco, while the Ivory Coast will play against South Africa, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania in group B.