It is a score or burst situation

MOSCOW. When I was still a player at my former club, SC Villa, one of our coaches, the late Mzee Charles Jjagwe (RIP), would not hear of talk like, “we dominated our opponents and spent the entire game in our opponent’s half, but could not score. We were unlucky.”
He would quickly shut you down. To him, that meant a team was naive and not worth it.
At this year’s World Cup, Morocco has dominated play in each of its first two Group B games, against Iran and Portugal respectively. But scoring has been their let down and consequently are heading home early.
And Saudi Arabia, too, who put up a spirited fight against Uruguay in Group A, but never really looked like scoring all match long. They’ve exited the tournament, too.
You cannot win no games if cannot score goals. It’s irrelevant that you dominated your opponents in a match. This reminds me of my beloved SC Villa, back home here, in the Azam Uganda Premier League, this season. They dominated many games but could not score. And up in flames went the title aspirations.
Contrast that with Portugal at this year’s World Cup tournament.
Against Spain, they had only about 35 per cent possession all match, but walked away with three goals in that game. And against Morocco too, they were dominated, but utilised whatever little that came their way to win the match 1-0. Portugal and Uruguay, are perhaps, the most efficient teams so far at this year’s World Cup. They have utilised, to maximum effect, whatever little that comes their way, and as a result are firmly on course to the knock out stages.

*The writer is a three-time winner of the Ugandan League with SC Villa and played in two continental finals (1991 & 1992)