Crested Cranes will need more than just names against Ethiopia
Knack for goals. Nassuna has scored more than twice as anyone for the Crested Cranes while inset right, Nalukenge has grown into a top prospect. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- On Wednesday, the women’s national football team locks horns with Ethiopia at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende, well aware of the poor record against the Horn of Africa side.
The Crested Cranes go into yet another Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualification campaign with goal scoring concerns.
On Wednesday, the women’s national football team locks horns with Ethiopia at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende, well aware of the poor record against the Horn of Africa side.
Uganda first met Ethiopia in 2002, losing 4-2 on aggregate in that year’s AWCON qualifiers. Current assistant coach Oliver Mbekeka and Hasifah Nassuna’s mother Annet Nakimbugwe scored for Uganda in a 2-2 home draw then – at a time when the national team was known as She Kobs.
Since then, Uganda has beaten Ethiopia, albeit a weakened one, twice in Cecafa 2019 (1-0 thanks to Fauzia Najjemba’s goal) and Cecafa 2018 (2-1 thanks to Grace Aluka and Yudaya Nakayenze’s goals).
The more serious encounters like Cecafa 2016, when the region looked to re-establish this tournament after a 30-year hiatus, and the 2020 Caf Women’s Olympic qualifiers, have gone Ethiopia’s way.
In 2016, when Uganda rebranded to Crested Cranes to open a new chapter, Ethiopia won 4-1 at Fufa Technical Centre in Njeru with Nassuna scoring the consolation.
Underwhelming returns
Nassuna has since established herself as Crested Cranes top scorer with 14 goals in 22 matches, including one in the 3-2 Olympic qualifiers away in Ethiopia, but Uganda’s struggles in matches that matter seems to linger on.
In 2018, during their last AWCON qualification campaign, Uganda lost 1-0 on aggregate to Kenya in the first round.
And recently, when Crested Cranes needed a win against Zambia to make the knockout stages of the Cosafa Women Championships in South Africa, the goals did not suffice.
All this despite, a highly regarded attacking force that includes Nassuna, Fazila Ikwaput – who has played in the Uefa Champions League with Kazakhstan side BIIK Kazygart – Iceland-based Sandra Nabweteme and the young but ever-present force of Juliet Nalukenge, who now plies her trade in Cyprus.
The biggest indictment on Uganda’s forwards came under the regime of coach Faridah Bulega, who set up her team defensively and to win through set-pieces during Cecafa 2018 and Cosafa 2018, tournaments in which Uganda won silver and bronze respectively.
During Cecafa 2019, Uganda still relied on setpieces but after blowing away minnows Djibouti 13-0 in the opener, they struggled to find goals against Kenya and Tanzania as they finished third.
Despite having Nalukenge and Nassuna among her forwards against Kenya in the AWCON qualifiers, Uganda did not muster a goal over 180 minutes.
Nabweteme and Ikwaput joined the fray against Ethiopia a year later in the Olympic qualifiers but Uganda needed a set-piece rebound from Nassuna and an own goal from the hosts to keep the tie alive in 3-2 away defeat.
Selection headache
Uganda lost 1-0 at home as Bulega struggled to establish a consistent forward-line.
Coach George Lutalo had Nassuna and Nabweteme in South Africa earlier this month and tried in two of the three games he had to re-establish the partnership that the duo enjoyed with Kawempe Muslim between 2010 and 2016.
In the 0-0 draw with Namibia, Nassuna played behind the three forwards; Resty Nanziri and Norah Alupo wide with Nabweteme central.
Unfortunately, Nabweteme missed the Zambia encounter due an injury suffered in the warm-up. Lutalo played Nassuna as left-side forward in this one with Nanziri as Nabweteme’s replacement.
Laki Otandeka, who has two Crested Cranes goals from Cecafa 2016, played on the right and Nassuna grabbed two goals.
Only Nassuna seems to pick goals for Crested Cranes at every tournament she has been to yet her place in the team does not seem nailed down.
In 2016, coach Majidah Nantanda used her as a second striker in a 4-4-2.
Bulega dropped her for Cecafa 2018 as a move to the US belatedly fell through.
Reinstated in the squad for the AWCON qualifiers and Cosafa 2018, she played as either a forward or attacking midfielder. Ditto Cecafa 2019.
In the Olympic qualifiers, she came off the bench in Ethiopia and then started in Lugogo.
With Lutalo summoning some players from the U-20 squad that eliminated Kenya from their World Cup qualifiers last week, it is highly likely that Nassuna and a few others could have different roles against Ethiopia.
U-20 wingers Margaret Kunihira and Fauzia Najjemba, who has a Cecafa goal against Ethiopia, are among the summoned young players. But they find in camp all the aforementioned forwards and even more in Amina Nababi and Sharon Nadunga.
The Juliet Nalukenge role
Nalukenge, who has continued her U-17s form for the U-20s in their World Cup qualifiers, is among those that will worsen the selection headache as she is most suitable in a central role. Will she displace Nabweteme, who just has one senior goal - against Eswatini, or become the team’s impact substitution?
The youngster, by the way, has six senior team goals; five against Djibouti at Cecafa 2019 and her first after coming off the bench against Zimbabwe at Cosafa 2018.
Ikwaput, who missed Cosafa through injury, is the other with six Crested Cranes albeit all against minnows – three against Djibouti in 2019, two against Zanzibar and one against Burundi in 2016. If fit, her industry could come in handy as a right forward.
The onus is on Lutalo to find the goal-scoring formula but it is time some of the forwards started delivering on the big stage.
