Stiff learning curve for Cranes

Below par. Benjamin Ochan’s howler gifted Zambia an unlikely goal. PHOTO BY EDDIE CHICCO

What you need to know:

Soccer. Cranes face Namibia tomorrow, hoping to make amends for a suspect display on Sunday night against Zambia.

Games. Number of games that Cranes have played at three Chan editions, winning just one.

KAMPALA. Witchcraft could be real. How else can you explain Cranes keeper Benjamin Ochan’s second half howler that propelled Zambia to pole position, and Uganda to the ignominy of having to fight from bottom?
Under no pressure from a long range lob, Ochan overstepped his goal line in demonstration of the lack of concentration that underpinned Cranes’ timid surrender to the Copper Bullets.

Wedson Nyirenda’s Chipolopolo must be pinching themselves at the fortune of facing a Cranes side ready to gift them victory on a silver platter.
For Zambia did not reach the dizzy heights that, say, powered them to African Nations Cup success six years ago. Cranes were marginally the better side in the opening exchanges, often playing with studied patience and maintaining their structure.

New Cranes boss Sebastian Desabre has vowed to improve the team’s conditioning ahead of encounters with Ivory Coast and Namibia.
However, I think the Frenchman is looking for solutions in the wrong places. Cranes’ problems against Zambia were more of technical and tactical nature, than physical.

It goes without saying that keeper Ochan must make way for Ismail Watenga.
The Vipers FC keeper has never blotted his copybook as badly as Ochan did in Marrakech on Monday night. Ochan’s Champions League experience with Kampala Capital City Authority FC must have informed his selection. But even at his club he has been upstaged by Charles Lukwago, and has to make do with rotation.

One of the cardinal rules of football is never to trust a keeper rotated at his club. It would be the equivalent of Belgium coach Roberto Martinez choosing Simon Migbnolet ahead of Thibaut Courtois, yet his club manager can’t trust him with Champions League assignments.

Sorting structure
Next up would be sorting out the left side of Cranes’ structure. Both Zambia’s opening goal from Lazarus Kambole (which came against the run of play) and Augustine Mulenga’s go ahead goal after Derrick Nsibambi had netted with an acrobatic leveller, came from weaknesses on the left side of the defense.

KCCA pair Isaac Muleme and Timothy Awany were not at the races for the two opening goals. Throughout the game, Muleme was mostly visible as an an attacking force.
That would have been acceptable if he had been playing as a wing-back in a 3-5-2 formation. But in a 4-4-2, as the Cranes lined up, he must play as a proper full back.

Of course Muleme wasn’t helped by the two midfielders deployed on the left side of anchor man Taddeo Lwanga, who was monumental. Sadly for coach Desabre, Sadam Juma - playing on the immediate left of Lwanga - failed to destroy or create, while Allan Kyambadde, despite being left footed, neither provided cover for Muleme nor linked up with Nsibambi.

Coach Desabre is blessed to inherit the thriving Vipers right sided partnership between Nicky Wadada and Milton Karisa. Perhaps Uganda’s most improved player, Karisa was always a bundle of energy, whizzing past Zambia’s bedazzled left back, with abandon.
That he faded badly late on, is testament to his work rate and willingness to carry the Cranes’ creative burden.

His task will be to improve his physical conditioning and final delivery, as lead striker Nsibambi was starved of service.
In addition to rethinking his team selection - Awany, Mutyaba, Muleme, Juma and Kyambadde all failed to cover themselves in glory - Desabre might need to change the team’s formation. The Cranes failed to get any traction from the 4-5-1 because it left Nsibambi isolated.

A 4-4-2 with Hood Kaweesa or Mohammad Shaban; or 4-3-3 with all three strikers might be the formation needed to provide a 1-2 knock out combination against Namibia and Ivory Coast.