Uganda Cranes players

Cranes Coach Bobby Williamson has already selected the 21 players he expects to beat Guinea Bissau on Saturday and the big promotion for the match will ensure Uganda Cranes get full local support as Ugandans are expecting to pour into Mandela national stadium Namboole in multitudes.

Bobby Williamson’s starting line-up. The story is less likely to change when the Scot names his starting 11 for the return leg of the 2012 Nations Cup qualifier against Guinea Bissau at Namboole on Saturday.
Yet Geoffrey Massa remains an unpopular figure amongst some fans and critics, who accuse him of wastefulness in front of goal.

FUFA Spokesperson Rogers Mulindwa says after the trainings, all cranes palyers are in good form and ready for the match, save for goalkeeper Dennis Onyango, who struggled with an ankle injury although doctors have said he should be able to play on Saturday.

The other concern might be the absence of Cranes Captain Ibrahim Sekajja in the Saturday line up as the skipper will be serving his match ban in the tournament. But Williamson has Isaac Isinde (St. George, Ethiopia), Hassan Wasswa (Atlay, Turkey) and Henry Kalungi (Richmond, US) to replace the instrumental Sekajja.

Uganda must win the match to keep up their hopes of leading the group and ensuring their qualification to the 2012 CAF finals where they last featured in 1978.

Uganda Cranes current lead the group with 7 points, three ahead of Angola and Kenya who also play on Saturday, and four ahead of Guinea Bissau whom the Cranes beat 1-0 at home. Surely the return led in Uganda should be a better day for the Ugandans who rarely loose on home soil.

Ultimate Media

The post Uganda Cranes Hopeful of Beating Guinea in Africa nations cup qualifier first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

the Author

Recently when I saw Nigeria succumb to the thrashing of Greece, I was not shocked at all or not even disappointed in anyway. This is not because I am not a fan of Nigeria or any other African team at the FIFA 2010 world cup. No. In fact if there is any buffoon that is a die hard fan of the African teams at this year’s world cup, then it is I Zak, the son of a Munyoro peasant.

However, one of the reasons why I was not shocked or even disappointed when those Nigerian fellows were beaten for the second time in this year’s world cup, it was just because I am a citizen of a country which last qualified for the African cup of Nations in 1978, 10 years before my flesh and bones were delivered into this world and for the case of world cup not even a single time in the history of this world. Yet every other time our country Uganda participates in these qualification campaigns for World Cup and Africa cup of Nations, but has always failed to qualify just because it loses matches here and there.

So, I have seen Uganda lose over and again while it failed to qualify for such ultimate competitions. True, at first I would get disappointed and shocked when Uganda lost, not until I got used to the losses.

Now, I am so used to losses in football that even if I rallied behind teams like Nigeria in the world cup and all that they did was lose during the competition, I swear I would never be shocked or lose my wits over such stuff of losing that I have seen Uganda do and do quite well.

Nigeria National football team

Moreover some of these teams more so that Nigerian team has started behaving like the way Uganda behaves during the qualification campaigns. I have begun to suspect that these Nigerian fellows must be copying some of the tricks that Uganda uses to ensure that it does not qualify for these prime competitions.

I suspect that must be the reason why the other day Nigeria gave away a 1-0 advantage to those Greek fellows who took advantage and won the match. I hope you all remember that time when Uganda gave away an advantage of similar style some time back to a country called Niger which also went ahead to win the game against Uganda in a qualification campaign.

Then Uganda went ahead to turn its faith and put it in mathematics to qualify for the African Cup of Nations. No wonder mathematics betrayed Uganda even when Uganda won its last match during that qualification campaign. Now after giving away a game to the Greek national football team, Nigeria decided to put its faith in mathematics and hoped that it wins its game against South Korea to have any chance of qualifying for the next round of the World cup. Surely that is copying Uganda’s tricks.

Keep following Zak as he delves into different issues, events and ideas concerning Ugandans with his youthful satire.

zak@weinformers.net

The post African football teams in the world cup like Nigeria copying Uganda’s tricks first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.