Mr Clean Sheets

KAMPALA. Since beating Lesotho 2-0 on matchday four of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, Uganda Cranes fans have been poring over the single point needed to book a ticket to Cameroon. Further number crunching, however, shows that the shutout Denis Onyango managed under the lights of Setsoto Stadium in Lesotho’s sleepy capital of Maseru left the veteran goalkeeper on the cusp of a monumental accomplishment.
A decade has now passed since a goalkeeper navigated the murky waters of Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification without conceding a goal. The last goalkeeper to achieve that rare feat with great distinction was Boubacar Barry who piled one clean sheet on the back of another as Ivory Coast lorded it over Gabon and Madagascar.

This was during the 2008 Afcon qualifiers.
Four years earlier, Morocco had collectively plundered 10 goals against Sierra Leone, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea whilst keeping them scoreless. This as qualification to Tunisia 2004 was achieved at a canter for the Atlas Lions. Before that, Senegal and Uganda both failed to breach Togo’s onion bag as the Sparrow Hawks effortlessly locked down a place at the 2002 Afcon finals.
The business end of the Afcon qualifiers first embraced a round robin format in 1992. It took only two years for a team to slalom through the new qualification process without giving away a goal. That team was Ghana’s Black Stars. The West Africans’ feat was, however, a fortunate stroke of serendipity. Tanzania, who had split four goals with the Ghanaians on matchday one, withdrew from the 1994 Afcon qualifiers together with Burkina Faso. In the midst of all this, Ghana went on to beat Liberia 1-0 in Accra and 2-0 in Monrovia to become the first team not to give away a goal in the qualifiers.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Ghana set that landmark in July of 1993. African football governing body has for one salami-sliced qualification groups (there are a dozen of them), ensuring that each has four teams. Onyango, who earned his first Cranes cap in 2005 against Ghana, has been a powerfully calming effect in the 2019 Afcon qualifiers.

He has gone an improbable 360 minutes without conceding a goal in a campaign that has yielded 10 points and counting. Today’s opponents at Mandela National Stadium need little reminding about Onyango’s competencies.

Cape Verde’s Blue Sharks cut a desolate figure when Onyango repelled all that thrown at him as the Cranes prevailed 1-0 at Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde in Praia on matchday one.
Onyango has of course been here before. The 33-year-old went 270 minutes without conceding a goal during the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers before an early Mo Salah goal in the cauldron that is the Borg El Arab Stadium snapped the streak. Could lightning strike twice? Onyango will be hoping not especially since a clean sheet will ensure qualification to a second Afcon finals tournament on the bounce.