Uganda’s national team, the Cranes, will tomorrow, Saturday, kick off their campaign to earn a berth in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa at the Nelson Mandela national stadium.
The Cranes have not had much luck in recent campaigns, but the team at least has a loyal nation behind them. So the 40,000-seater Mandela national stadium (located at Namboole on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital Kampala by the way, not somewhere in Johannesburg) is once again expected to fill up to the brim.
The expectations, as has been the case each time the Cranes have started such a campaign, will be enormous. And with Uganda’s soccer governing body, FUFA, having summoned a record 16 professionals, the fans will expect nothing short of a victory.
Opening day victories have in any case been formalities each time the Cranes have started such campaigns. Where the Cranes have come short in the recent past is in their failure to win sufficient games (especially away from home,) to garner sufficient points to claim a qualification slot.
Over the years the Cranes have, in the words of one pundit, come second so many times that if there was a competition for coming second, the team would still take the second position.
The most painful was of course the qualification campaign for the 2008 Nations Cup campaign where the team failed to qualify by a single goal. A second experience of that nature would be too much to bear for a nation that has already endured so much heartache.
Part of the reason the team has performed poorly in the past was the federation’s inability to transport all the team’s professionals to feature in every game of a campaign. It was a problem that reared its head again in the last campaign – with the team captain, Ibrahim Ssekajja, failing to make it for two crucial games.
This time round, with at least four games to be played in June, and the local league – as well as most leagues across the world – having been completed, even the 16 players plying their trade in foreign leagues can be maintained in camp for the entire month.
The signs look good; it is now up to the players to go out there and discard that nearly men tag that has dogged Ugandan football for ages.
A nation waits, and expects.
The Cranes have not had much luck in recent campaigns, but the team at least has a loyal nation behind them. So the 40,000-seater Mandela national stadium (located at Namboole on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital Kampala by the way, not somewhere in Johannesburg) is once again expected to fill up to the brim.
The expectations, as has been the case each time the Cranes have started such a campaign, will be enormous. And with Uganda’s soccer governing body, FUFA, having summoned a record 16 professionals, the fans will expect nothing short of a victory.
Opening day victories have in any case been formalities each time the Cranes have started such campaigns. Where the Cranes have come short in the recent past is in their failure to win sufficient games (especially away from home,) to garner sufficient points to claim a qualification slot.
Over the years the Cranes have, in the words of one pundit, come second so many times that if there was a competition for coming second, the team would still take the second position.
The most painful was of course the qualification campaign for the 2008 Nations Cup campaign where the team failed to qualify by a single goal. A second experience of that nature would be too much to bear for a nation that has already endured so much heartache.
Part of the reason the team has performed poorly in the past was the federation’s inability to transport all the team’s professionals to feature in every game of a campaign. It was a problem that reared its head again in the last campaign – with the team captain, Ibrahim Ssekajja, failing to make it for two crucial games.
This time round, with at least four games to be played in June, and the local league – as well as most leagues across the world – having been completed, even the 16 players plying their trade in foreign leagues can be maintained in camp for the entire month.
The signs look good; it is now up to the players to go out there and discard that nearly men tag that has dogged Ugandan football for ages.
A nation waits, and expects.
1 comment:
well, the cranes delivered. we can onli hope they take the winning streak too far
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