The Fahad Bayo’s double – revival of fortunes or false hope?

Author, Mr Moses Banturaki. PHOTO/FILE.

What you need to know:

  • Up till then the Uganda Cranes had been happy to keep it tight and test for any weaknesses on the counterattack. Within four days, in part two of this double header, the Uganda Cranes took the lead from the same man after another dead ball was not decisively death with by the Rwandans. 

It was a moment of pure opportunism on Matchday Three of our World Cup qualifier against Rwanda in Kigali: Fahad Bayo hung around long enough to pounce on a loose ball that bounced off the upright and rolled invitingly across the unguarded goal mouth. 

Up till then the Uganda Cranes had been happy to keep it tight and test for any weaknesses on the counterattack. Within four days, in part two of this double header, the Uganda Cranes took the lead from the same man after another dead ball was not decisively death with by the Rwandans. 

Now Ugandans have found their voices and swept all initial doubts and cynicism beneath the carpet of excitement and swagger. But what do the Bayo goals signify? Some say they are the symbols of our revival – the signs of a nation taking tentative steps from gloom to glory.

But, like many moments of inventiveness, I fear that this is an oversimplification of a complicated story. I agree that at times the details need to be collapsed into one principal move that fans can relate to. 

It is healthy for us to feel that with those two wins the Cranes are freeing us from the chains that tend to bind us to mediocrity. 
Yet perhaps now that Mali eventually beat Kenya in Nairobi over the same weekend, to restore their two-point lead at the top of Group B, this is also a time for reflection.

The Uganda Cranes are a team that have never qualified for the World Cup. So it can be said that our current enthusiasm is more out of hope than experience. Yes, there has been some progress, especially over the last four years, that keen followers of continental football wouldn’t be shocked if we made the final 10 for Round Three of the qualifiers due to be played next March. 

It would be naïve, however, to take our renewed hope for anything more than a what-if moment. Qualification will not be achieved by picking six points from the lowest ranked nation in the group. 
For that to happen we must win our remaining two games, including one away to Mali. And if that fills you with worry, it is probably because such journeys are devoid of any short cuts.

Meanwhile, Fahad Bayo’s goals represent moments that will pop up from time to time, regardless of the cycle of form. In our current form, they are the exception that could quickly extinguish unless they are harnessed into a rule. 

In fact, there is something tragically ironic about the fact that Fahad Bayo’s magic was cut short by a self-inflicted injury from an unnecessary tackle chasing a no-where ball. That’s how quickly hope fades if early promise isn’t well managed, and as the scorer of our only goals in 12 months, he had better be fit for next month’s games.

In other words, those goals should remind us that this kind of opportunity is the exception, rather than the norm. Of course, nations, even ones that are rebuilding, are often refracted through the lens of how they lap up opportunity. But the space between promise and the establishment of a nation as a genuine contender for a World Cup slot can be full of false starts.

Goals are goals. And Fahad Bayo is our best bet. But whether his two goals this week end up representing real progress or just a fleeting glimpse of what can be, will depend on if or when the Cranes do learn something about how every opportunity can be leveraged to soldier on purposefully.

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Twitter: @MBanturaki