Vipers up against odds at Merreikh

KAMPALA. A new dream and fresh campaign starts for Ugandan champions Vipers SC away to Al Merreikh in Sudan with huge responsibilities on the Kitende side.

Having wrestled KCCA off the national cake last season, Vipers are now tasked with the responsibility of measuring up to the standards KCCA set.

Making the group stage of the Caf Champions League, which KCCA managed last season, would be a feat of magical proportions for coach Javier Martinez Espinoza in the Mexican’s debut season at St Mary’s.

Yet falling down to the Caf Confederation Cup, something KCCA did in coach Mike Mutebi’s first assignment with them on the continent, would still be an a huge achievement for a team that are yet to find their feat amongst the continental big boys.
And what a task they have on their hands to pull that off! Vipers and Uganda Cranes influential midfielder Moses Waiswa is confident “If we play with belief, we can get the results we need.”

And that result would be at least scoring a goal and returning to Kampala for the December 5 return leg in a strong position to progress to the next round, where Gambia’s Gamtel or Algeria’s Sportif await.

Replicating a feat
Vipers will have to do what only KCCA and Villa managed in 2014 and 1991. Then at their peak en route to the Champions League finals in 1991, Villa needed a post match penalty shootout to edge the Sudanese 8-7.

KCCA also overpowered Merreikh 3-2 on aggregate in 2014, avenging a 2009 painful defeat that brought to an end a fairytale run that had seen George Nsimbe’s side also eliminate South Africa’s SuperSport United.

Besides those two triumphs, Villa, KCCA, Express and URA have all fallen victims to the Sudanese.
Actually, out of nine times Al Merreikh have encountered Ugandan opposition in Champions League and Confederation Cup, the Sudanese have come up top on seven occasions. That is the statistic Vipers will have to confront.