Star Nalukenge holds keys in U-20, U-17 W. Cup qualifiers

Golden girl. Juliet Nalukenge is pictured playing against Ethiopia on Sunday. FUFA PHOTO

Kawempe Muslim SS striker Juliet Nalukenge is clearly relishing her role as the lead striker for the U-20 and U-17 national teams.

The 16-year-old striker has brought her poaching instincts to the fore scoring four of Uganda’s six goals in the two age groups’ Fifa Women World Cup (WWC) qualifiers.

Under-20 coach Oliver Mbekeka has stressed the need for her team to “find more goal-scoring solutions beyond just Nalukenge and Fauzia Najjemba,” but the former’s record over the past one year just forces her into the picture.

She started off the year with a header against Ethiopia in first leg of the U-17 WWC preliminary qualifiers in Lugogo a fortnight ago, where Uganda won 2-0 (the other goal came from Catherine Nagadya).

The captain capped that qualification round with a brace in a 1-3 win in the second leg on Sunday in Bahir Dar after Margaret Kunihira’s opener.

As fate would have it, Uganda will renew their rivalry with Tanzania in the first round of the U-17 qualifiers after the latter eliminated Burundi 6-1 on aggregate.

In between those U-17 ties, she had scored an important away goal for the U-20s – whose WWC is due in August in Panama and Costa Rica.

The U-20s lost 2-1 in the first leg of the first round of their qualifier against Tanzania in Dar-es-Salaam but have a chance to secure a place in the next round with a 1-0 or two-clear goals win.

The pressure will be on Nalukenge, among others, to secure the goals. To some extent Fauzia, who has played a vital creative role for most of the goals, must come to the party too after not hitting the back of the net in three high profile games.

The duo scored nine and seven goals respectively as Uganda won the round-robin Cecafa Women U-17 Cup in Njeru last month.

Prior to that, Nalukenge had also scored 18 goals as Uganda won the Cosafa Women U-17 Cup in Mauritius last year.

In between the tournaments, she had scored five – albeit all against Djibouti – as Uganda’s senior team Crested Cranes secured bronze at the 2019 Cecafa Women Challenge Cup. In that tournament Najjemba, who broke into the Crested Cranes ranks last March, scored in the 1-0 win over Ethiopia.

Nalukenge, who got into the national team set-up in 2018 with two Fufa Women Elite League seasons under her belt, also scored against Zimbabwe when Uganda won bronze in that year’s Cosafa tourney.

All evidence points to Uganda having a proven goal-scorer in this prodigy. She just has to keep showing it and Saturday will be another opportunity.