Without any sponsorship Patrick has toiled, taking bus rides to Mbarara and Gulu to watch barefooted kids play under the scorching sun, picking the best.

Uganda’s football fraternity is given to turning on the telly, watching Bayern Munich rip Barcelona to shreds as a result of years of painstaking plotting, and adopting absolutely nothing from the whole show.

It is a reflection of our society too as exemplified by, say, our politicians and technocrats partaking of those mazy road networks complete with multiple lanes, flyovers, bicycle tracks and pedestrian walks etc in Hong Kong or Singapore, and then returning to our pot-holed, muddy paths without a word.

The bitter truth is that we believe the really nice things belong elsewhere. Many have concluded that the beautiful weather of tropical Africa got us complacent as opposed to elsewhere where biting winters, hurricanes, tsunamis, infertile soils etc got people really thinking, necessity being the mother of invention and all.

Is this why Patrick Gwayambadde, having lived in Europe where nothing comes easy and people dedicate entire lifetimes to chasing after and actually realising dreams, is onto something big with his Excel Academy?

Patrick’s U-10 kids have just returned from Spain with ‘fairy tales’ of being tutored by Barcelona coaches, touching Lionel Messi’s Golden Boots at the Camp Nou, watching Mallorca’s B Team in action and all else.

He secured that trip through contacts who run football tours across Europe, has another to the UK lined up for his U-12s through his ‘mates’ at Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham, and an invite from the US where women’s soccer is huge, for which he is soliciting the help of Toro princess Ruth Komuntale to get girls to come and play.

The Barcelona coaches are in turn coming here and take a look, as will others from the UK, and some of kids ending up with those clubs is not the stuff of make-believe.

Without any sponsorship Patrick has toiled, taking bus rides to Mbarara and Gulu to watch barefooted kids play under the scorching sun, picking the best.

The concept is not alien and the success stories of West Africa and Latin America started the same way.

These initiatives don’t work only for Barcelona or Bayern; they ought to be incorporated in the 2040 vision, accommodated in a policy drawn up by the Ministry Of Sports and the NCS, and embraced long term by a Fufa which currently assembles a collection of poorly nurtured late developers for a few days and expects them to take Uganda to the World Cup.

mmssali@yahoo.com
@markssali on twitter

If the Champions League was the benchmark and the powers that be were tasked with singling out a credible winner of the coveted Ballon D’Or, they would be at pains to find one. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the dominant forces of this year’s competition, have not produced a standout MVP.

Had the El Classico miracle somehow happened in midweek, the selectors of the biggest individual accolade in world football would only have to wait for the Fat Lady to break into voice at Wembley to declare either one of those two fellas (no prizes for guessing) best of the year, depending on the destiny of Big Ears of course.

The final whistle of the ‘Die Klassiche’ on May 25 will not produce any such obvious winner, and the selectors will most likely be forced into doing a ‘Cannavaro’ and find a more politically correct candidate as they did after the 2006 World Cup.

More than anything though, that is exactly why the German clubs have stolen Spain’s thunder; where Barcelona epitomised ‘team’ strength not so long ago, over the last fortnight they have looked anything but. Bayern and Dortmund have usurped them in those stakes.

Ironically, long before the dust settles on that Wembley hurrah, it is apparent that while the Spaniards have more work to do it is instead the Germans who have already mapped out their paths.

Barcelona

They will not scale the dizzying heights of 2009-2011 any time soon. Back then they seemed to pick up a trophy every three months, deploying aesthetics and efficiency not seen before.

Contrary to premature post-mortem however, they are not going to fall off the radar either for even in their current shape they can still beat almost all of La Liga and more than half of Europe in their sleep; Barcelona do not need so much an overhaul as a re-jig , the philosophy does not need discarding but rekindling and revitalising.

For a side only recently declared the greatest of all time, the humiliation was not only in Bayern’s aggregate score but in their impotence in the absence of Lionel Messi. It was fun watching him score 90 odd goals last year, but for Barcelona’s sake this cannot go on. They have got to find help for him, not just alternative scorers but the way they score too. Finding the net from beyond the 18-yard area and from set pieces can’t be frowned upon, Bayern do all those and still manage to play beautifully, and the Germans have up to six players on any starting line-up that can score with the regularity permitted by having only one ball and just 90 minutes for every game.

Barcelona have got to re-organise defensively, add some new, hungry blood to the current have-won-it-all lot, and be more welcoming and accommodating in terms of playing style and culture. Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Alex Song, David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovich and all recent arrivals cannot all have been mistakes.

Real Madrid

Some of the stuff that Jose Mourinho spewed out in the immediate aftermath of the Dortmund defeat were in really bad taste, but a grim reminder to the club that they have to go about replacing him in a quick but well thought-out manner to avert the post-Mourinho crisis which adds to the Special One’s legend and which he clearly enjoys no matter his outward show of hurt.

Madrid cannot allow for Mourinho’s departure to spark a player-exodus or a dressing room rejection of his successor, for they still have a squad just one good manager and two three players short of the elusive La Decima.

And Florentino Perez ought to revisit the much maligned ‘Zidanes and Pavones’ mantra he tried to adapt at the turn of the century, just get the mix right this time. Since the arrival of Alfredo di Stefano almost 60 years ago, there have always been glamour foreigners at the Bernabeu, but if they look inward to their B team they can keep the Ronaldos, Benzemas and Ozils in the good company of more Moratas.

Dortmund

And so the dream of an El Clasico final goes up in smoke, ruthlessly blown to pieces by single-minded German machines clearly intent on replacing it with the reality of what I have been told is called ‘Die Klassische’.
Events in midweek were nothing short of surreal, and many literally had to pinch themselves to check that they were wide awake and not deep in slumber-land.

Only last week, I had declared Bayern the strongest, deepest and most likely to foil the Clasico plot, and Dortmund the most fluid and exuberant; but not in my wildest dreams did I envision they would both be this good on either night.

In fact, I had declared Barcelona and Real Madrid slight favourites because of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo; both men were left to look on hopelessly, one because his physical condition couldn’t help against the sheer force of the opposition and the other because his very best efforts paled in comparison to the relentlessness and dogged determination of the competition.

The Germans so outdid the Spaniards at their own game it was like watching two renditions of the Hollywood thriller Inception, in which Leonardo DiCaprio played the thief who infiltrated the subconscious of his victims and stole their dreams.

Almost all of those who tune into the return legs will just be looking to witness the inevitable, but there will be a small number of hopeless romantics secretly hoping for the mother of all comebacks, in one of or both cases. Allow me a minute to hallucinate along with the latter. What if …

Messi
One week on and Messi should be moving with a lot more freedom than he managed at the Allianz Arena, on a turf that responds to his nifty little steps more than any other.

He will certainly be fitter than when he was when he came off the bench to influence matters against PSG in a 2nd leg that was threatening to spiral out of control. And although he will need more than just the one magical moment that was sufficient against the French, Bayern had better not let the little wizard get on top of them as early as he did against AC Milan, because whatever they do after that might be enough.

Ultimately, Tito Vilanova has got to be a lot more proactive and innovative than he was on Tuesday, if he is going to help Messi attempt to pull off Mission Impossible.

Once their greatest strength, the over reliance on Messi under the circumstances is now Barca’s biggest folly, and on occasion next Wednesday they should use him as the dummy instead of the predictable go-to. Even if he was on one leg Bayern would not dare ignore him, so deliberate runs to drag defenders and midfielders out of position should be deployed to free up space for the pass and goal attempt for someone else.

Vilanova ought to play David Villa ahead of Alexis Sanchez for that reason, and at some point chance the risk of throwing on say, goal scoring Cesc Fabregas for the deep-lying Sergio Busquets who has been below his best lately. Never mind the imbalance that might cause, it is evident that maintaining the banal status quo will not get the job done.

Kaka
Real Madrid themselves will need to shake things up if they are to give themselves a chance of a miraculous riposte; Jose Mourinho was at least less entranced than Vilanova and had the presence of mind to throw on Karim Benzema, Angel Di Maria and Kaka in quick succession.

Still though, the introduction of Kaka seemed as late as his involvement in anything Madrid since Mourinho took over. This once, Mourinho might want to change that entirely and start Kaka ahead of Di Maria or Luka Modric.
Dortmund will press and close down spaces as expected, and Kaka’s ability to operate in those suffocating conditions should come in handy as he joins Ozil in the areas ahead of Alonso-Khedira and behind Ronaldo-Benzema/Higuain.

The few times he has pulled on the Madrid shirt this season Kaka has been outstanding. He is fresh because of all the inactivity, still has a great attitude despite being shunned, is great on the counter-attack, plays selflessly and without inhibitions, and always links up well with Ronaldo.

Set pieces
If the unthinkable is to somehow happen however, it is going to take a lot more than individual brilliance or having the right players in the right places at the right time.

By nature of their manpower and dominance, Barcelona and Madrid have depended on free flow in open play to beat teams, but never has the dead ball been as important as it is going to be Tuesday and Wednesday; Barcelona have to defend it better, and Madrid have to deliberately seek it and make it tell.
With only Gerald Pique standing tall against the size of Mario Gomez, Gerald Boateng and especially Dante, Barca were vulnerable from corners and freekicks. He might not be match fit, but Eric Abidal should be risked ahead of the young novice Bartra.

Messi will inevitably be hounded yet again, so he, Andres Iniesta and co will want to draw Bayern into fouls around the area so the little master can have a crack from freekicks; Madrid will have to do the same to allow Ronaldo to have a go, but with them the corners and in-swingers should be a priority so Ronaldo, Ramos, Pepe and Varane use their aerial expertise. Subotic, Hummels, Lewandowski and co defended the set pieces well in Germany, but they still represented Real’s biggest threat. Win enough of them on Wednesday and something is sure to give.

A very good friend of mine has this one line of defence he spells out every time his wife and kids label him disorganised. He says there is method to his madness, a rehearsed retort which he however justifies by eventually getting things done, and right.

‘Disorganised’ is way too harsh where this man is concerned though, a word used as part of some friendly ribbing, for on the contrary it is his meticulous attention to detail that has made him one of Uganda’s truly authentic success stories in business and sport.

While his is the tale of the single-minded pursuit of excellence of an individual, the ‘method to madness’ line he uses is one that best suits many of the organisations which run sport here and abroad.

For all the criticisms leveled at Sepp Blatter and Fifa for example, to my mind we will never be able to accord them enough credit for the series of decisions which eventually landed the World Cup on African soil.

Those who think them incompetent would never have gone for a move that worked out so perfectly, setting a precedent with far reaching implications for the future of sport. The counter argument of motive, that Fifa was only playing a numbers game of political patronage and money, doesn’t hold I am afraid.

Closer to home, Cecafa’s decision to take the Kagame Cup to the Sudanese expanse of Darfur is seemingly destined to have a similar impact on a smaller but still greatly significant scale.

With the several flaws that came to fore when Cecafa brought the Senior Challenge Cup to Uganda last time out, it is pleasantly surprising that the same group will pull off this literally ground-breaking move.

When, in the middle of a site tour of the ravaged region, Rogers Mulindwa confesses that “the place is far from what we hear about it, it is calm and peaceful”, one realises what this experiment could do; if two stadiums are ready and a few more underway in an area of six million mostly desperate people, you are talking jobs permanent and temporary, exposure to the world that could change the face of that region and its fortunes, as well as the unquantifiable humanitarian angle of giving people in that situation something to look forward to.

And the moral for our sports leaders and organisations is that, if they put their minds to it, they can produce a lot more method than their current madness.

mmssali@yahoo.com
@markssali on twitter

Ugandans have accused each other of getting too excited too early, false bravado and settling for less in regard to our place on the global scale of sport, education, innovation, industry, economics and all else.

It is something I have always found unfortunate - even where it is true - a sentiment reawakened by some comments and one major headline since Stephen Kiprotich placed sixth at the London Marathon Sunday.

It has always been clear to me that we possess an inherent inferiority complex, evident in the mannerisms of the lowly of society but even more pronounced within our elite and intellectual, which has had me believing we are not good enough and that our achievements are flukes, one-offs etc.

Rather than point fingers, attempt justifications or go defiant, we ought to admit to this and set out to fight it together. Let us not be fooled, overhyping ourselves is way better than beating ourselves up. At the top of the scale the Americans and Chinese do it, further down the English and South Africans have mastered it, and closer to home it has been adopted by all except us, from the Nigerians to the Kenyans. We have to feel good about ourselves, no one will do that for us.

While Kiprotich is clearly not a case of too much hype, there is the risk of us pulling our own down especially since the finer details of athletics are not with most of us in the same way as, say, football.

Those who expected the Olympic champion to win the London Marathon will not have known that his personal best was way below a good fraction of the field, or that the dynamics were complicated by pace setters etc. They would thus be disappointed and explanations of those dynamics, or that at 24 Kiprotich has plenty of ‘marathon time’ before peaking would sound like excuses.

Of course Kiprotich has to be wary of the supposedly obvious issues which many achievers outside Uganda don’t take for granted. He no longer has the element of surprise as a weapon; the Olympics are usually tactical races but other marathons are about time and money and he should lower his personal best; he has to work even harder and steer clear of the vagaries of life that usually cut short the reign of Ugandan champions, Kassim Ouma for one…
He really has the opportunity to help Ugandans overcome age-old complexes and believe.

mmssali@yahoo.com
@markssali on twitter

With little to choose between the protagonists in either semifinal tie, it is left to Messi and Ronaldo to tip the scales yet again, and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that they need no invitation.

With little to choose between the protagonists in either semifinal tie, it is left to Messi and Ronaldo to tip the scales yet again, and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that they need no invitation.

A Clasico final at Wembley would be only the latest episode of the enduring Messi vs Ronaldo sitcom that has excited, intrigued and enraged in equal measure, and the number-crunchers at UEFA are no doubt drooling.

I would rather have a different climax to this latest edition of the convention of Europe’s finest, and an all German final wouldn’t do it for me either; the spectre of the El Clasico looms large in reality though, with Barcelona and Real Madrid slight favourites to end the Bundesliga’s quest at the penultimate hurdle.

With little to choose between the protagonists in either semifinal tie, it is left to Messi and Ronaldo to tip the scales yet again, and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that they need no invitation.

They couldn’t have faced sterner examination though, and only their very brilliant best will suffice this time.

Barcelona vs Bayern
Encumbered by injury for virtually the first time in his career, Messi goes into Tuesday’s first leg with the fitness doubts that should lift Bayern’s spirits.

But even if Bayern can further slow him down by snapping at his heels and tugging at his hamstrings (pardon the cruel pun) at the Allianz Arena, the newly installed German champions will want to know that in ties like these Messi saves his most magical for the Camp Nou, as AC Milan and PSG will ruefully acknowledge.

On the only two occasions that Barca haven’t prevailed at this stage in the last five editions, the Argentine has had to be shackled by great team effort, coupled with bravery (Inter Milan in 2010) and more than a slice of good fortune (Chelsea last season).

Without Messi Bayern would knock-out Barcelona (PSG would have too), with a half-fit Messi the Germans are favourites, and even with the little phenomenon at full throttle the Bavarians can still get it done. His powers of recovery, highlighted a couple of times in the wake of previous scares, suggest that he will be in fine fettle after sitting out the La Liga trip to Zaragoza last Sunday, but what Tito Villanova does with him when Levante visits tonight will be most telling.

With a central midfield that matches Barca for numbers, Bayern can stifle Messi if Javi Martinez and Toni Kroos take turns to pay close attention. Kroos is young enough to combine that chore with bombing forward (like Chelsea’s Ramires did last year), while Martinez can multi-task in the relatively easier way, doubling as the horizontal patroller. That would leave Bastian Schweisteiger, a little further advanced, to get in Xavi’s face and deny the connoisseur open looks.

Considering the subtle threat posed by Andres Iniesta, it wouldn’t be bad at all if Arjen Robben was sacrificed for an extra midfielder, a Gustavo or Xherdan Shaqiri, but the flying Dutchman is almost back to his best and gives Bayern width, a goal threat, antidote for left back Jordi Alba, and outlet for the counter-attack. Besides, Robben and Frank Ribery both attract double teams when in possession on opposite touchlines, and will affect Barca’s shape while providing ammunition for the imposing Mario Mandzukic and the elusive Thomas Muller.

With the biggest and most varied arsenal in Europe this season, Bayern don’t have to be in a hurry and it will be essential for Phillip Lahm and David Alaba to exercise restraint at the start. But they will be wary that it can all come unstuck by a Messi moment …

Real Madrid vs Dortmund
If Bayern are the deepest, Barcelona the best-oiled and Real Madrid the most athletic, then Dortmund have the most youthful exuberance and fluidity.

Over two games in the group stages it was difficult for Bayern to live with Dortmund in possession and movement, and yet the Germans have twice proved in this tournament that they are not only about tiqui taqa – first when they defended deep and hang on under immense pressure for an entire half in the 2-2 draw at the Bernabeau and then when they improvised with the long ball to overcome Malaga after the passing game could find no way through against the resilient Spaniards in the quarters.

Real Madrid are however in much better form than they were in September, October and November when they fell far behind Barca in the league and couldn’t win their Champions League group; and Bayern would be quick to tell Dortmund (if they asked) that Real are difficult to beat twice in the same season, having themselves been inspired by Mehmet Scholl and Alexander Zickler in the early stages just over a decade ago, only for Madrid to avenge those defeats late on in the same competition.