An odd campaign for Cranes
Masaka product. Tonny Mawejje (red) is one of the best footballers to have come out of Masaka but the district has struggled to sustain clubs in the topflight. PHoto BY e. chicco
What you need to know:
Soccer. Before Sunday ,the last time Uganda qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations was in 1978, which is before all members of the current Cranes team were born. And the current Fufa president Moses Magogo was only two years old
Kampala.
That picture vividly got magnified once the Cranes beat Comoros 1-0 to seal the desired ticket to dine with the continental football giants for the first time in 39 years.
Sunday’s win was Uganda’s first victory in a final Afcon qualifier match since beating Benin 2-1 courtesy of a resounding Geoffrey Massa brace in Namboole on October 12, 2008 in the road to Angola 2010.
Just take a look at the 2017 Afcon. Uganda will be with Egypt, Ghana and holders Ivory Coast but there won’t be three-time champions Nigeria, 1996 winners South Africa and 2015 finalists Cape Verde.
That’s already reason to smile for any Ugandan considering the fact that the Cranes last won their qualification match some 38 years, nine months and 22 days ago.
Then, nearly half of Uganda or the globe’s population was yet to be born.
The fans that wild ran onto the field in Namboole last evening could have even done more than carrying up the billboards, running around half-naked or even blowing vuvuzelas to fullest.
A day in Ugandan football like on Sunday had last come when then skipper Jimmy Kirunda scored a late winner to beat Ethiopia 2-1 and advance on November 13, 1977.
And some 14,175 days later, Belgium-based midfielder Farouk Miya delivered the Holy Grail on September 4, 2016.
Well, this has been quite a unique campaign. Cranes’ custodian Denis Onyango did not concede any goal at Namboole during this phase. More interesting, Uganda won two away matches away in Mitsamiouli and Gaborone for the first very time.
They could have actually finished unbeaten had Denis Guma’s foul trouble not given Jonathan Pitroipa chance to score the winning penalty in Burkina Faso.
And coach Micho Sredojevic kept seven players in all six starting line-ups.
How often does that happen considering the undulating stature of Ugandan players!?
Group d results
June 13, 2015: Uganda 2-0 Botswana
Sept 5, 2015: Comoros 0-1 Uganda
Mar 26, 2016: Burkina Faso 1-0 Uganda
Mar 29, 2016: Uganda 0-0 Burkina Faso
June 4, 2016: Botswana 1-2 Uganda
Sept 4, 2016: Uganda 1-0 Comoros
Group d standings
Burkina Faso - 13 pts
Uganda - 13
Botswana - 6
Comoros - 3
