Pundits had tipped Kenya to win with ease, but Harambee Stars found the going rather rough and conceded first in the 36th minute when Nahom Girmai Netabay capitalised on a defensive mistake.
Kenya waited until the 86th minute to level matters when Ryan Ogam finished off good work from substitute Ben Stanley Omondi. The 1-1 draw was not received well with fans, who booed the team at the final whistle.
Despite the outcome, McCarthy has defended his players insisting he did not see any mistakes to pick out, and was proud of how the team showed up.
‘I can only be proud’
“There is nothing that can make me complain about the game, that I can point a finger, that can I say like the team lacked this, the team lacked that, because they had the desire, they had the heart to perform,” said McCarthy.
“Like I said lack of preparations kind of showed out there because we weren’t as clinical as we wanted to be. I think Ryan (Ogam) had a couple of opportunities that in normal circumstances he puts them away.
“But I think yeah…when you don’t train four for days, and you have to go into a match like this, yeah, you gonna have a little bit of shortcomings but I can only be proud of what I saw from the players.
“It is a special group that we have, and yeah, they shouldn’t feel outdone by because I think they gave everything, and we were by far the standout team, the better team, so, I’m not too worried about that.”
McCarthy added: “I think if we can just sort out the last problems that we had then we will even have a better chance to win because we had zero lessons, and we performed like that.
“So, if we could have had two sessions before the game, I think we could be better organised, and we would limit mistakes that we had.
“We definitely won’t make the mistakes like we did that cost us a goal, and our finishing quality in the final third would also be better than what it was against Eritrea.”
Omondi reminiscent of Onyango
The South African legend went further to defend goalkeeper Byrne Omondi, whose mistake allowed Eritrea to take the lead against the run of play.
“Byrne (Omondi), what can I say?” McCarthy posed a question before adding; “If you have played Champions League final and won it, you know football. If you haven’t, then shut up.
“Since I started as coach, he’s come in, and when I look at Byrne, I see the stature of someone like Denis Onyango.
He reminds me a lot of Denis Onyango with his time at Sundowns and big stature, and every single day in training and during CHAN, he was exceptional.”
McCarthy continued: “For the life of me, I couldn’t understand how he was still playing in the Kenyan league.
“No disrespect to the teams in Kenya, but I thought he was a goalkeeper that could play in Europe, Egypt, Morocco, and the South African league, he is that good.
“He gets criticised for whatever reason, he is for his club, but for the national team, it is not his club, and the national team what he does when playing for myself and the team is completely different, so, because of that we have confidence, we have faith, and we put our trust in each and every player.”
Kenya will now need to bounce back when they make the long trip to West Africa to face Guinea on October 1st at Stade du 28 Septembre in Conakry.
With Kenya already guaranteed a place at the finals alongside fellow hosts Tanzania and Uganda, only the highest-placed team from the remaining three sides in Group D will qualify.
In the other group fixture, South Africa under new coach Pitso Mosimane defeated Guinea 2-1 at Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
The results leave South Africa at the top of Group D with three points, followed by Kenya and Eritrea with one each, while Guinea are yet to get off the mark.
