Football the Beautiful 90 Minutes Game

 

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

 

Africa’s most celebrated football icons: Victor Wanyana (Kenya), Denis Onyango (Uganda) and Mrisho Ngasa (Tanzania) at the unveiling of the new trophy for the Africa Nations Championship 2024. CAF online Photo

For the first time Uganda Cranes have progressed to the quarter finals of the Total Energies African Nations Championship. The celebrations that ensued will be remembered for some good time. Not with the style and drama in which it was achieved!

 

Uganda’s journey to the quarter finals is another tale of its own. The opening match was between Uganda the host and Algeria. At the end of the 90 minutes, Uganda was crest fallen as Algeria won with a resounding three goals to zero! The 2024 African Nations Championship is being played in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

 

Ugandans made sure that their anger with the results, and the general performance of the team, is clearly presented to the managers of the national team. The President’s offer of one billion and two- hundred million shillings was also greeted with the supporters’ wrath arguing that it made more sense to fund the sports docket as a whole.

 

But to prove that the anger and criticisms were in good faith, fans returned to Nelson Mandela National Stadium- Namboole in big numbers and they did occupy the position of the twelfth player. At the end of the ninety minutes, Uganda was counting three while Guinea Conakry was empty handed!

 

Niger also met the same fate from the Uganda Cranes. Uganda left Namboole with two goals while Niger had none.  

 

Algeria and South Africa were the group favourites but football being what it is, at the end of the first three games for all the five teams, it was Uganda at the top with six points. The favourites each had five points. The stakes for the group closing games were indeed high. But Uganda needed only a draw with South Africa.

 

The Uganda vs South Africa group closing match was to kick off at 8:00 pm but by 4:00 pm Namboole was packed to capacity. Tickets for the match were sold out four days to the kick off.

 Right from kick off Uganda Cranes showed the desire for an outright win. And at half time, Uganda was leading 1-0.

 

                                           Nelson Mandela National Stadium

There is no doubt that Uganda indeed possesses a lot of talent but poor administration and funding are letting down our young people. With the Buganda Masaza tournament, it is obvious that a lot of talent is being wasted in the countryside. Buganda Masaza tournament has become the recruiting agency for the Uganda Cranes. The Federation of Uganda Football Association should style up.

 

Majority, if not all teams in the Uganda Premier League are clearly struggling. The African Nations Championship is for only the players in the national leagues of the competing countries.

 For Uganda it is almost hard to state the type of football that is synonymous with the national team.  There is no consistency. Players have been playing high balls yet they are not good in the air. This denied us a lot of chances and the flow of the game was being interrupted all the time.

 

The accuracy of the ground passes should be more thorough and precise. There is no other way of putting the opponent on the defensive, and keep him panicking than with this type of passing the ball.

 August 18 will remain in Uganda’s football records for a long time since this is the day the country made that emphatic progress to the quarter finals beating South Africa. But the second half brought tremours in the hearts of Ugandan fans as South Africa made successive scores to lead Uganda 3-1 until the last minutes of the game.

 

 Jude Ssemugabi celebrates Uganda Cranes’ first goal. All CAF Photos

This beautiful game of football is a 90 minutes challenge that is not over until the final whistle is blown. It was clearly obvious that Uganda Cranes switched off at one time yet in football you switch off at your own risk.

 Unfortunately even some fans started moving out of the stadium crest fallen! But the final whistle had not yet gone. For football even a second is enough to turn the score around. And that is exactly what happened.

 

As the players pushed ahead, Uganda got two successive penalties and the draw that was enough to progress Uganda Cranes to the quarter finals was in the bag. In the 87^th minute Uganda Cranes got the second goal after Allan Okello converted the penalty resulting from a foul on the advancing Cranes player. The stadium and those watching on their television sets went wild with joy. For South Africa it was tears and disbelief!

 

That is the beautiful game of football. It is played for ninety minutes.