After a 39-year absence, the pressure on the team and expectations from the adoring fans back home couldn’t be much higher.
Today evening Uganda Cranes take on Ghana in their opening game of the 2017 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) campaign in Port Gentil, Gabon.
In their final training session on Monday evening, Cranes goalkeeper Dennis Onyango made a penalty save off striker Farouk Miya. It came after defender Nicholas Wadada had fouled Cranes captain Geoffrey Massa.
It was the kind of situation that must have left Cranes coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic with mixed feelings. It is through goals that you win games, yet it is also through goalkeeping saves, that a team’s blushes can be saved.
In Micho’s pre-match press conference, he did not repeat enough the need for Cranes to score their first goal and also register their first win, as the team’s basic strategy for this tournament.
He said, “We are here for the first time after 39 years, so we cannot make any major promises beyond the fact that we are going to give this event our utmost best for the people of Uganda.”
Creativity and goals remain a challenge for Micho today, as it were when he first arrived in May 2013. Miya has proven over the last one year to be Cranes go-to guy. He scores the important goals, as seen in his finish against Comoros last September, a goal that sealed qualification to Afcon.
In fact, in Cranes’ last two competitive games at home, the second one involving Congo-Brazzaville in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, it was Miya’s strike that finished the Central Africans off. So, without a trace of doubt, Miya will be crucial against Ghana, as he looks to take the goal-scoring mantle away from Massa.
But as Micho usually says, he believes in his players. Clearly, so much of the nation’s hopes rest in the palms of its goalkeeper. It is that huge a responsibility for Onyango, as it may be for anyone else on the team.
For example, Massa has come into this tournament without the best of form, yet, when one speaks to him, he is the kind of player that is always re-assuring.
But seeing him on his back after the Wadada challenge was anything but re-assuring. He appeared to be in some pain. But after the doctors worked on him, he gave the thumbs up, as he slowly walked to the waiting car after the session, which ended a little sooner than Micho had probably planned.
The arrival of the Ghanaian football team bus at the Sogara ground, where The Cranes trained too, compelled Micho to end his session immediately to allow the players head to their bus.
The sight of some members of Ghana’s coaching team standing by the pitch-side must have prompted Micho to end his session. Although Micho chose to greet them with a handshake, as he entered the car, the two sets of players never saw eye-to-eye since the Ghana players did not get out of their bus until the field was clear and The Cranes were long gone.
This was probably intended to keep the anxiety on for today’s clash. Both The Cranes and the Black Stars have not crossed paths, to exchange pleasantries despite both staying in Hotel du Parc. That says a lot about the magnitude of this clash. There will be no love lost.
But more importantly, Micho and his charges will resist any intentions of the Ghanaians to bulldoze them off the field, as the Ghanaians presence almost metaphorically did, to end Cranes final training session.
In the last nine games involving the two teams, Cranes has won thrice while Ghana twice, which points to how evenly poised this whole affair is. Expect Micho’s team to approach it with caution, to deny Ghana any space to maneuver.
However, this, the tenth is more important than the previous nine, and for all Ugandans, today’s win would eclipse all the previous ones.
Probable Line-up: Denis Onyango; Dennis Guma, Isaac Isinde, Joseph Ochaya and Hassan Wasswa; Tonny Mawejje, Mike Azira and Geoffrey Kizito; Farouk Miya, Luwaga Kizito and Geoffrey Mass.