Rebuilding The Cranes from the back can only bode well

First things first, all glory, laud and honour to The Cranes who thoroughly merited their midweek road victory over Nigeria.

The Super Eagles may have plumbed the depths of recent, but not many outfits have beaten them in their backyard or put them in the shade on the better head-to-head count (Uganda has fours wins, three losses and a draw against the West Africans) for that matter!

For years goalkeeper, Denis Onyango, has been an éminence grise operating in the shadows of The Cranes’ stuttering machine. Not this time, though.
The captain’s armband, clean sheet, and Khalid Aucho’s alternate white Cranes strip, which Onyango sported only after another digit had been shockingly handwritten both front (remarkably with a pen) and back (marker), meant that headlines were made for both right and wrong reasons.

Onyango being Onyango, there was also no short supply of smart saves such as the one from Simon Moses early in the second half, and the customary running down of the clock when Farouk Miya’s deflected goal handed Uganda the initiative.

All these priceless acts left Cranes faithful beaming with pleasure. It was also greatly pleasing for them to see Onyango’s screams understood by a young, if inexperienced, Cranes rearguard as a call to arms to defend resolutely.
Against Guinea, last November, The Cranes’ rearguard looked like it was steeped in discrepancies.

The repulsive penalty and subsequent red card that Andrew Mwesigwa conceded was a tell-tale that things at the back were at sixes and sevens. Some cutting and chopping in The Cranes’ kitchen needed to be done to rid its defence of a cookie-cutter outlook.

For now it looks like Mwesigwa will be hit hardest. Richard Kassaga hasn’t done his chances of partnering the soon-to-be fit Savio Kabugo any harm. The two enjoyed a telepathic partnership during last year’s African Nations Championship in South Africa.
Murushid Juuko, whom Cranes coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic rates highly, Isaac Isinde and Shafik Bakaki will all quietly fancy their chances.

Bakaki, 19, was handed his first Cranes cap midweek, and he didn’t have that many hair-raising moments against a decent Nigerian attack.

In his second season at Express FC, Bakaki was headhunted by Wasswa Bossa from Kirinya Jinja SS. When your columnist recently asked Bossa what makes Bakaki tick, the Express FC coach cited the defender’s “strong heart” as well as the fact that “he loves to learn”.

These are attributes that Micho loves in a player. At Express, Bossa converted Bakaki from a central defender to a fullback because “I have many options in the centre”.
Options at right back are pitiful both at club and country levels. Dennis Iguma needs competition to force him into pushing the envelope.
Bright Stars’ Joseph Nsubuga has duly thrown his hat in the ring. He may have had the odd uncomfortable moment against Simon Moses midweek, but Nsubuga showed he has the tools to excel.

As did Alex Kakuba on the left.
Micho has talked about rebuilding The Cranes. What better place to start than from behind. If the display against Nigeria was a sign of things to come, it could be onwards and upwards for The Cranes.

WHAT WE KNOW...

We now know that Team Uganda yesterday took part in the World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China, without the services of three stalwarts. Coaches Nalis Bijingo and Benjamin Longewos were sacrificed (at the altar of greed?) to accommodate technocrats who were expected to take note of what it takes to organise an event of a similar stature.

We know that Uganda will host the next World Cross Country Championships in 2017. But did the technocrats needed to have been that many? In a word, no. We know that Team Uganda athletes needed to have their coaches by their side. Notoriety could only have been gained by leaving them.

We also know that Team Uganda could have done with the know-how of distance runner Moses Kipsiro. A standoff with former Police Athletics Club coach, Peter Wemali, however, saw Kipsiro (below) pull the plug on his association with Team Uganda. How the long-standing feud ends remains to be seen.