Alitho needs to look at Lukwago for inspiration

Few goalkeepers have balanced comedy and melancholy as astonishingly as James Alitho did during Vipers SC’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of KCCA.

There was an almost deliberate vagueness about Alitho’s net minding as the grooved teeth of the Venoms were expertly chiselled at the StarTimes Stadium in Lugogo Tuesday evening.

With first choice net minder Ismail Watenga injured, Alitho had a rare opportunity to travel from the margins to the mainstream. There was, however, not much exultation over the performance the stand-in put in. Twice the lanky net minder failed to command his area after Mustapha Kizza bent in vicious set-pieces.

Alitho capped his unseemly number of gaffes by dropping the mother of all clangers at the death to gift Derrick Nsibambi the simplest of tap-ins.
The grapevine had been buzzing with accounts of how displeased Alitho was about having to play second fiddle to Watenga.

Tuesday’s rare start gave the forgotten net minder a chance to shine with renewed purpose through the haze. He didn’t.

Cynics will be quick to conclude that if Alitho harbours any hope of being Vipers’ first choice custodian, it will serve him well to admit its hollowness and lay it to rest.
One of the cynics told your columnist as much Tuesday evening. He added that any streak of hope Alitho has is shaded by deep concern about what lies ahead.

Flickering future
Besides the fact that Alitho’s light is flickering and not extinguished, it is terribly hard to predict what lies ahead. Especially since rumours of Watenga being on the verge of a move to South Africa show no signs of abating. Even if Watenga stays put at Vipers, Alitho needs not think of himself as being doomed to irrelevance.

It is perfectly acceptable for one to keep hoping, even against hope. Charles Lukwago, whose net minding at StarTimes Stadium on Tuesday was the polar opposite of Alitho’s, offers a textbook shining example.

Last season, even the most daring of punters would have treated staking money on Lukwago stripping Benjamin Ochan of his cloak of near-invincibility at KCCA as a colossal error. The doubting Thomases were vindicated when Lukwago heaped one mistake on the back of another as KCCA let a two-goal lead slip against Police. The hapless goalkeeper not only looked short of confidence, but also out of his depth.

With Lukwago’s incompetence looking like a threat to all around him, the goalkeeper seemed destined to live in Ochan’s shadow. Many began to think of Lukwago a nonentity and the description had come to be chillingly accurate. Determined to confound his critics, Lukwago put in the hours during the offseason.

The hard work was not in vain as Ochan now finds himself deputising Lukwago. The arc of the beautiful game is long and, in the case of Lukwago, it has finally bent towards fulfilment. What’s to stop Alitho from believing that a similar Cinderella story can pan out in Kitende!

Why Mudoola’s call up to Rugby Cranes 7s makes a lot of sense

As far as stories coming full circle go, Timothy Mudoola’s takes some beating. It was in December of 2003 that the rugby player made his bow in a global sevens tournament. If the 35-year-old is shoehorned into Uganda Rugby Sevens’ starting lineup in Dubai during the first weekend of December, as is widely expected, he will find himself in the place where it all started.

Not everyone has seen encouraging signals in Mudoola’s call up. Much discussed is the dark shadow that the call up casts over the attempt to blood young blood into the Uganda Rugby Sevens’ ranks.

The player at the very heart of the discussion has barely strained under the weight of such divergent views. There has been an unguarded ease about Mudoola (inset) that suggests a person in every way content to be home.
And rightly so.
This column believes that Mudoola’s call up does not hold a blank sheet of paper where it should have answers as some are suggesting.
The present plays an integral role is shaping the future. Before suffering a quadricep stretch in Jinja, Mudoola bestrode the national sevens circuit in a way his competitors never came close. He certainly showed that the Uganda Rugby Sevens team can do with his services. This makes him part of the fabric that constitutes the present; not past.

Uganda Rugby Sevens coach Tolbert Onyango told your columnist that “looking at all options ahead of the World Cup” is the prudent thing to do. Thus, he added, will help the team build on its recent feats. Uganda did bubble with much more than just ambition (it ran in a showreel of impressive tries) and intrigue (three players went AWOL) during this year’s Oktoberfest Sevens in Germany. A number of fatal flaws were unearthed at the tournament, the pick being -- in no particular order -- poor first time tackles and kickoff receptions.

As well as being intimate with the undercurrents of success, Mudoola offers experience, high ball contest on kickoffs and leadership under pressure. These are variables that any sober coach cannot overlook. A first option at prop who also takes off a great heft from the overworked Michael Wokorach at centre is too good to pass up. “We need someone of that size who can carry the ball,” Onyango said of Mudoola.

Clearly, there’s still lots of rugby left in Mudoola. Indeed, as he did back in 2003, the 35-year-old can stand Uganda’s HSBC World Rugby Series campaign in good stead.
The Mwesigwas of this banana republic surely deserve better.

What we now know....

We now know that a Ugandan will figure in the group stage of this season’s Uefa Europa League. That Ugandan is Ronald Mukiibi.

Missing out
We know that the towering defender missed out on making the grade for Uganda’s 2017 Afcon finals squad by a whisker.
While he pulled up short on that occasion, he had something to smile about after his Swedish club Östersunds FK beat FC Zorya Luhansk to a Europa League group stage berth.
We know that Östersunds reached the round of 32 on the back of an impressive 2-0 return leg win.

Debut season
What made the feat all the more remarkable was that this is Östersunds’s debut season in Europe!
The club has also tucked under its belt three promotions in Sweden’s club football tiers across the past five years.

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@robertmadoi