Last Afcon chance for long-serving Cranes players

Uganda Cranes will kick-off its seventh appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) when a chosen 11-man unit steps out of the tunnel to face DR Congo in the second Group A match at the Cairo International Stadium on Saturday.

The ticket to Egypt was one of the easiest qualifications for the Cranes as they booked a finals’ slot with a game to spare. However, from the final 23-man squad read by coach Sebastien Desabre last Tuesday, there are only 13 survivors from the previous edition held in Gabon two years ago.
That means 43 per cent of the team was turned over and hence new faces are tasked to deliver on a job that finds the Cranes in arguably the most difficult group.

Key to the back-to-back successful qualifications is, of course, Fufa’s keen attention on the Cranes, but also, the backbone of the team that begins with Denis Onyango in goal, to Hassan Wasswa in defence, Farouk Miya in the middle and Emmanuel Okwi upfront.
Mr Onyango is the captain and understandably so. He is continent’s best goalkeeper and the only Ugandan who made the Africa Best XI of 2018 chosen by continental football body Confederation of African Football (Caf). He took over the reins from Mr Geoffrey Massa, who retired after the tournament in Gabon and the latter had picked the baton from Andy Mwesigwa after the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.

Mr Onyango, Mr Massa and Mr Mwesigwa are from the clique of Ibrahim Sekagya and David Obua, but the man nicknamed ‘Mr Safe hands’ is now the longest-serving member of the current Cranes’ crop and the last one from that generation that is still in the national team set-up.
At 34, this, on paper, appears as his last Afcon show and Mr Onyango has actually hint about it that it could be his final stage for Uganda, especially after the Cranes lost the 2018 World Cup ticket to Egypt.

Sources in South Africa indicate he is keen on concentrating on club football after he signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract with Mamelodi Sundowns in February.
Owing to his achievements, including the Caf Champions League with Sundowns, Mr Onyango’s retirement is entirely up to him. He could as well play on until 45 like Essam El Hadary did to wait for his World Cup debut with Egypt.

But then again, there are those in the Egypt-bound team that could be phased out because of the Fufa system that has now nurtured younger generations at the U23 stage, U20 and the team which debuted at the U17 Afcon in April. The luck few from the 13 who were in Gabon and now set for Egypt will be on the verge of emulating the class of 1974-1976-1978 that featured at three straight editions which culminated into the final 41 years ago.
Back-to-back qualification will trigger the Cranes to attempt to progress from the group stages for only the second time in history.