Basena argues Onyango necessary for team spine

Safe hands: Cranes keeper Onyango has established himself as arguably the continent’s oustanding goalkeeper. PHOTO BY EDDIE CHICCO

What you need to know:

  • The likes of Ismail Watenga and Benjamin Ochan – candidates for Chan - would have been saved the hovering cloud of Onyango in Congo, you could argue. But Basena says those sentiments are borne of blurred lenses.
  • The former UPDF, URA and KCCA coach ends his current interim understanding with Fufa after the game in Congo.

KAMPALA. Twenty-one players, two of them goalkeepers, did not show rustiness as they put in a shift in Uganda Cranes first training at Namboole ahead of next Saturday’s final 2018 Russia Fifa World Cup qualifier in Congo. This is thanks to seven-eight league matches played so far.

The Cranes face the Red Devils knowing they cannot qualify for Russia even if they won, but with Cecafa – due in Kenya next month - and the Africa Nations Championships (Chan) in Morocco early next year, coach Moses Basena has more reason to rally his men.
However, while the game against Congo is viewed as preparation for Cecafa, the 2019 Nations Cup qualifiers in March next year, and Chan, it is the latter that carries more immediate weight with Uganda making the Morocco cast of the home-based players’ tournament.
Perhaps this is reflected in the national team interim coach, Basena, naming only eight foreign-based players in his 32-man squad to prepare for Congo.

Kizito Luwagga (Politehnica - Romania), Tony Mawejje (Tirana - Albania) and Farouk Miya (Standard Liege - Belgium) are some of the foreign-based players excused from the Congo job.
Egypt-based Hassan Wasswa and Emmanuel Okwi (Simba - Tanzania) are some of those on the team, but it is the inclusion of captain Onyango that might have come as a surprise, especially that the Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper has nothing to prove in a dead-rubber.

The likes of Ismail Watenga and Benjamin Ochan – candidates for Chan - would have been saved the hovering cloud of Onyango in Congo, you could argue. But Basena says those sentiments are borne of blurred lenses.
“We need to keep the spine of the team,” Basena told Daily Monitor after Thursday training at Namboole, “Denis is the captain. He is our leader and for us the game against Congo is as important as that against Egypt.
“Wasswa, as you know, has also always given us 100 per cent, Okwi gives us that edge upfront. So the young ones also want to hold onto the old ones and continue learning from them.”

On the Cranes job, Basena reaffirmed he applied for the role permanently. “Mine is to continue performing and the results will judge me,” he said.
The former UPDF, URA and KCCA coach ends his current interim understanding with Fufa after the game in Congo.