AFCON
AFCON HISTORY BECKONS ON CRANES OF UGANDA
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Surprise team of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, Cranes of Uganda may pick qualification for the Round of 16 on Wednesday if they overcome Zimbabwe.
Such a result means the team qualifies for the next round of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 41 years since beating Morocco 3-0 in Kumasi, Ghana on March 11, 1978 to top Group B of the competition.
Beating Zimbabwe may also means the ouster of the Southern African country.
Uganda’s coach has his eyes on the game. “It’s a very important game for us. We are focused to have a good game and forget the first game result.
“We top the table now but we need to have a minimum of four points to qualify, Zimbabwe is a very good team and it’s not easy for us to play against them. We’re ready to give our best and I hope we can win.
“We respect Zimbabwe so much but we are focused on our team. We need to correct some mistakes from the first game, we played a good game but not a perfect one and we need to improve them.
I don’t like to speak about one player, we are a united team.
“I respect Zimbabwe so much, they are a good team and have a good coach. It’s always difficult to play against them.”
The captain of the side, Denis Onyango, spoke in similar vein. “We are playing against a very good team and to be honest and I know 90% of their players and they are very good as we saw them against Egypt.
“Our target is to go through and we just think of the next game. We want to get maximum points and fight very hard to get the result we need.
“We are not thinking of Egypt game because we are playing Zimbabwe now. We don’t want to overlook that because we are taking the match very serious so as to enter our last game knowing our fate.
Zimbabwe have some very good players that I know very well and that’s good for us.”
The Zimbabweans know too well that they have their fate in their hand. Coach Sunday Chidzambwa admitted that the Ugandans are a good side. “They defeated DR Congo and I think we have to fight hard for the entire game and I just hope we will be at our best to get a good result that will revive our qualification hopes.
“Against Egypt we didn’t have many chances but we will try to do better this time. We lost against the home team and I think we had a good game. I told the players to forget about this match and start to correct our mistakes. We are not here to add numbers but we came to compete.”
Ovidy Karuru, a player anticipates a difficult match. “We need to win this game at any cost because this can determine our future in the tournament. We expect a good game and I promise we will do our best and fight hard to win because we want to go to the next round. To lose our first match happens and we are focused on our next match.
“Denis Onyango of Uganda is Africa’s number 1 goalkeeper, he knows us well but we also know him as well.”
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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