Why forward Sserunkuma remains work in progress

The 21 goals that Geoffrey Serunkuma has scored across all competitions this season underscores rather than contradicts the fact that the thirty something has earned the right to lead Uganda’s line.

After Serunkuma went on a decent scoring streak in the first round of this season’s Ugandan topflight football league, many thought the warm approval he was getting was nothing more than hyperbole. The sceptics did not stop at that but also held that this hyperbole would prove to be a burden rather than a spur for the veteran striker.

Four goals in four Caf Champions League matches later, it is crystal clear who is eating humble pie. Serunkuma has taken hold of Cranes fans and backroom staff as never before. With the sentiment that Geoffrey Massa is past his sell-by date echoed and reinforced with relentless vigour by his current clubless outlook, Serunkuma has a realistic chance of burning himself into the consciousness of Cranes coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic.

When KCCA FC drew Egypt’s Al-Masry in Tuesday’s Caf Confederation Cup draw, a vivacity and charm about the tie struck Micho. It wasn’t the fact that Al-Masry is coached by Egypt’s all-time top scorer Hossam Hassan. No. Even the Ugandan media’s fascination with the manner in which the tie will leave Jackson Mayanja with split loyalties did not interest Micho that much. “For me [it] is [a] warm up for [the 2018 Fifa] World Cup qualifiers,” Micho told your columnist in a breezy matter-of-fact manner.

Micho was essentially revealing in his trademark coded manner that Serunkuma will be auditioning for the role of Cranes attack spearhead when the cosmoses of KCCA FC and Al-Masry collide. Uganda plays Egypt’s Pharaohs in what will be a crucial doubleheader at the tail end of August and start of September. Egypt hold a fragile-looking two-point buffer against second-placed Uganda in the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

The jury is still out on whether Serunkuma has all the attributes that imbibe the true es-sence of an attack spearhead. It takes much more than just finding the back of the net to competently lead the line as KCCA FC’s gut wrenching one-all draw with Mamelodi Sundowns in the Caf Champions League showed. On that occasion, while Serunkuma’s goal put KCCA FC in the box position, one fatal error by the striker ended up costing the Kasasiro Boys dear.

A lot has been made of the quick-fire substitutions that KCCA FC manager Mike Mutebi made barely minutes after recess. Some observers hold that the changes that saw ball carriers Paul Mucureezi and Allan Okello hauled off for Sulaimon Akinyemi and Paul Musamali profoundly influenced the outcome of the game.

While that assertion rests on a cornerstone of conjecture, it is undisputed that the goal KCCA FC conceded came after Serunkuma failed to press Ricardo Nascimento. Owing to this, the Brazilian defender has all the time to fashion a pinpoint pass to Tebogo Langerman, and the rest, as they say, is history. Some blame could be laid at the door-step of Majwega (for not going tight on Langerman), Benjamin Ochan (for mustering a feeble punch on Langerman’s cross) and Joseph Ochaya (for letting Anthony Laffor easily peel off him), but everything started with Serunkuma failing to press.

The modern day striker is expected to work ever so hard with or without the ball. This is something that Geoffrey Massa did superbly when he was at the peak of his powers. If Serunkuma harbours hopes of leading Uganda’s line, his levels of concentration, intensity and spirit have to improve.

**************

Is da Costa the right man to press Vipers’ reset button?

When Vipers Sports Club’s maverick patron Lawrence Mulindwa decided to send Abdallah Mubiru on gardening leave, there was a flood of speculation as to in whose grasp the coaching reins would next rest. After Richard Wasswa and Edward Golola doing some fire extinguishing, little known Portuguese coach Jorge Miguel Duarte da Costa was early this month hurled into the cauldron.

When it was brought to da Costa’s attention that Vipers SC has of recent become a re-volving-door workplace for coaches, the Portuguese was quick to brush aside the con-cerns. There was a growing cosiness between the 37-year-old coach and his trigger happy boss after the former revealed that he wants “to win every game.”

Mulindwa had earlier hinted at what da Costa needs to do to sustain the cosiness. “We are looking beyond,” Mulindwa said, stretching his left arm forward. “We have to build a very strong academy. One of the areas that we have emphasised in our contract is that we develop an academy to international standards so that we can feed the senior team.”

It was a fascinating deliverable for Mulindwa to set. As far as many Ugandans can tell, Vipers chimes perfectly with youth football development. It is attached to a football-crazed school that has not done a shabby job replenishing the club’s engine room.

Yet for some reason the engine finds itself suddenly sputtering. On Thursday, as Moses Waiswa’s cross-shot beat the despairing dive of the Kenyan net minder to ensure Uganda held its close door neighbours to a one-all draw, Frank ‘Zaga’ Tumwesigye was watching from the St Mary’s dugout as Erisa Sekisambu put Kiboga Young to the sword in a Uganda Cup round of 16 match.

The Venoms won the match 7-0, with Tum-wesigye’s entrance midway through the second half attracting a big cheer from the home crowd.

The stasis that was holding back the young midfielder’s career remains a concern to many. Da Costa is expected to ensure budding talents such as Tumwesigye and Waiswa are harnessed in a methodical manner. The apogee of the dovetailing of Vipers and St Mary’s SS Kitende might be the unearthing of Farouk Miya, but the partnership — or whatever it represents — has been too scattershot for the liking of Mulindwa.

The stagnation of the likes of Keziron Kizito has not helped matters. Question now is will da Costa match the gravity of the situation? Is the young Portuguese coach the time-honoured panacea that the doctor order?