After yesterday’s evening official Caf training session in Athlone stadium at around 8:45pm, Cranes coach Sredojevic ‘Micho Milutin said he was excited over the player’s attitudes a head of this game. “My players are in good shape and they have shown us that they’re eager to take on Burkina Faso.”
Said the Serbian tactician just after the training “Of course we’re underdogs but we shall use this factor as our weapon to disprove the so called superiors in our group”.
He stressed It’s now two years since Uganda last appeared in the finals of this Caf African Nations Championship when it was last organized in 2011 in Sudan.
The tourney strictly put in place for domestic players in their respective countries got Uganda then on the offside position when we failed to tally with the level of competition and standards put up by our opponents in Group A’ which had Sudan, Algeria and Gabon by scoring only one penalty goal in the three respective games.
Well can one come to believe that football in Uganda has got a positive trend to take! If yes, can one say this is the right time for us to assess Cranes ahead of 2015 Morocco AFCON? Like I earlier on said our primary objective is to build a strong team for our future benefit players with extreme winning mentality then excellent performance in Chan comes in as our second objective if I used coach Micho’s words rightly.
But again if you persistently followed his conversation with Chan Cranes media officer Mutaka, Micho says it’s now or never to write history in this tournament as far as he is concerned.
In the first showpiece in which Uganda took part in 2011 we didn’t win even a single game so…“at this moment if we get a point, a win or passed through the group that’s already history written. This is a new generation of players who are inexperienced compared to 2011’s squad but their eager to prove. I will use 4 logics to manage this situation; that is to say power of coaching like mentally strong, physically fit, technically effective and tactically mature.” Micho said The highly anticipated encounter has no more time to spare than today evening at 9:00pm our local time in Uganda.
We qualified last year on July 27 after beating our neighbor Tanzania on a 4-1 goal aggregate so one should say we have got time to prepare for this championship…Burkina Faso has a bit of class and experience but Uganda has youthful squad and unearthed talent in them so let us wait and see who is who between experience and talent?
Brief match facts: Uganda has a poor run against Burkina Faso without a win in the last three encounters (W0,D2,L1) Burkina Faso’s Yelleboure Sango is suspended for this match Uganda qualified on a 4-1 goal aggregate after beating Tanzania in both ties while Burkina Faso had to struggle to beat Niger 5-6 on penalty to qualify after 1 all draw in both qualifying ties.
This is Uganda second attempt into this Chan competition. In 2011 championship in Sudan, Uganda didn’t go past through their group A after winning none of their preliminary group games.
In that tournament Uganda only scored once and it was a penalty goal by Juma Sadam against Gabon Iguma Denis is the only remaining player who took part in 2011 Chan in Sudan.
If selected Asiku Crespo and Yasser Mugerwa will be playing their first cap for Uganda Sredjovic ‘Micho’ Milutin is participating in this continental tournament Chan for the second consecutive time but with different countries.
In 2011 he was then the Rwanda National team coach. Uganda is searching for its first open play goal in this tournament Available squads for selection:
UGANDA: Ochan Benjamin (18) GK, Isma Bin Abdul Rashid Watenga (19) GK, Kimera Ali (01) GK, Kiseka Ronnie (15), Iguma Denis (12) (C), Martin Mpuga (06), Kasaga Juuko Richard (05), Muleme Isaac (20), Kabugo Savio (13), Wadada Nico Wakiro (02), Ntambi Julius (17), Kyeyune Said (08), Kyambade Allan (21), Kayizi Vincent (22), Mugerwa Yasser (03), Brian Majwega (11), Ivan Ntege (04), Mpande Mbolimbo Joseph (10), Hassan Mawanda Waswa (16), Asiku Crespo (23), Olaki Ronald Francis (07), Okwil Simon (14), Sentamu Junior Yunus (09).
BURKINA FASO: Mohamed Kabore (01) GK, Lare Diarra (16) GK, Abdoul Kobre (23), Yaya Coulibaly (02), Yelleboure Sango (03), Ousseini Yeye (04), Issa Gouo (05), Issoufou Dayo (06), Aboubacar Traore (07), Eric Traore (08), Winkome Zoungrana (09), Youssouf Kabore (10), Bassirou Ouedraogo (11), Oumarou Nebie (12), Cyrille Bayala (13), Boubacar Nimi (14), Aliassou Sanou (15), Aboubacar Barro (17), Ilias Tiendrebeogo (18), Francis Kabore (19), M’bah Kone (20), Saidou Simpore (21), Elisee To (22)
