Bobby hopes big decisions go Uganda Cranes way
Striker Geoffrey Massa has won crucial penalties for Uganda Cranes in recent games. The striker is, however, at times accused by some of conning referees. PHOTO BY Eddie Chicco.
What you need to know:
“Not many teams win away from home especially in Africa,”
the Cranes coach argues ahead of the return leg against Zambia.
KAMPALA
Uganda Cranes coach Bobby Williamson believes hard work coupled with some lucky charm can see them past African champions, Zambia, to next year’s Nations Cup.
The Cranes need to score twice without reply on October 13 at Namboole to be sure of qualification for South Africa 2013 following their 1-0 loss to the Chipolopolo early this month. Although Uganda did have an odd chance or two in Ndola, they twice had goal posts and goalkeeping heroics from Dennis Onyango to keep the scoreline in touching distance.
Bobby argues that it is always a tall order to win away, with refereeing decisions going to the home team such hopes to benefit from that against Herve Renard’s side. “Not many teams win away from home especially in Africa,” he said, “How many teams won away from home (at the qualifying weekend)? Not one team won away from home. “What does that tell you? It tells me a lot. It tells me that referees kind of favour home teams slightly in their decisions. And we are hoping that will be the case when Zambia comes to Kampala.”
Uganda last lost a game at Namboole in 2005, then a 1-0 defeat to South Africa. Since then, they have recorded some good results against giant sides including Nigeria, although some visiting sides have left Namboole cursing referees. The Cranes, whose 23-man provisional squad converge for training at Namboole this morning ahead of the game next month, will not only want to keep the unbeaten record intact. They must score goals. “If we can score that early goal and hopefully defend well… and may be get another one to win the game,” said Bobby.
“It’s difficult. As I said, we are the ones at home, the onus is on us to do the prodding and doing the attacking. “I’m not saying Zambia are gonna come here all in defence. So they will play two strikers I believe, may be one off the main striker, and we need to be sure that we are defending as well.
“When you are attacking that’s when you become most vulnerable especially against teams like Zambia because they react very quickly, they have good pace, they get forward in numbers. “So we’ve got to be guarded against that. We can’t throw caution to the wind early, maybe later in the game when we’ve got that one goal. I’d rather lose a goal late on rather than settle for a nil-nil.”
