Uganda girls seize advantage
No one can stop them. The starlets celebrate another thumping win on Monday. PHOTO BY JOHN BATANUDDE
Uganda beat Djibouti 11-0 yesterday at Njeru Technical Centre to seize advantage at the ongoing Cecafa Girls’ U-17 Cup.
Coach Ayub Khalifan’s girls now lead the round-robin competition with the maximum six points from two games after Tanzania and Kenya were held 3-3 by Burundi and 1-1 by Eriteria respectively.
“We are not getting carried away,” Khalifan said, as his main opponents for this trophy trail by just two points. Actually they could be more - for at least one of them - by end of tomorrow as Kenya and Tanzania lock horns on the day Uganda plays Eriteria.
“We just need to focus on ourselves because it won’t make sense if they drop points and we also fail to win maximum points.”
Back on pitch, you could feel Djibouti were in for a long afternoon soon as Fauzia Najjemba opened the scoring with a freekick in the second minute.
Stella Musibika, rejuvenating herself as a defender after playing for about two seasons as forward with Kawempe Muslim SS, doubled the lead two minutes later with a shot from down the right wing.
Juliet Nalukenge came to the party in the 9th minute before Najjemba completed her hattrick with two.
Margaret Kunihira then curved in one for sixth with four minutes to play in the 40-minute half but Uganda were not done as Samalie Nakacwa, who later needed to be rushed to hospital, made it seven with a goal from down the right side of the centre - almost similar to the one she scored in the 4-0 win over Burundi on Monday.
In the second half, Djibouti resorted to time wasting tactics that limited Uganda to just four goals from Nalukenge, Kunihira and a brace from substitute Hadija Nandago.
“We are here to learn and not to win. We lost the first game (against Kenya) 14-0 and this was 11-0 so maybe we are improving,” Djibouti coach Fatouma Moussa, said.
“Ours is a long process of learning and we don’t know how long it will take for us to get to the best we can be. Maybe two or three years,” she added.
Things might have to get worse before they get better as Djibouti are also using this as a preparation tournament for next month’s U-17 World Cup qualifier against Morocco. Uganda will play Ethiopia then.
