U-17 girls have to dig themselves out of hole

On Wednesday, the U-17 women’s national team reconvened at Fufa Technical Centre, Njeru, to devise how they will overcome Ethiopia in the second leg of the first round of the Women World Cup qualifiers.

Twice, coach Ayub Khalifa has watched his national teams get blown away by a late Ethiopian wave. First, when U-20s led 2-0 at halftime then lost 3-2 in the Cecafa Women Championships in Njeru last November.
Then last week, the U-17s led 2-0 with 13 minutes to play and ended up drawing 2-2 in the first leg of their qualifiers at St Mary’s Stadium in Kitende.

Goalkeeping weakness
Ethiopia’s game plan is almost recurrent. Let Uganda play themselves to what looks like a comfortable position then pounce late with long balls. The height, or lack of, of U-17 keeper Sharon Kaidu is something the Ethiopians will exploit from the get go in Addis Ababa with long balls.
It was clear that they had found her out and tried to target her in the second half. 
Despite being relatively short, Kaidu loves to play off her line and this had helped her look to have a commanding presence. 

“I think she was poorly positioned for their goals but it is something we’ll work on as we prepare for the second leg,” Khalifa said.
There is no time to find a taller and better goalkeeper but it is also a real weakness that most clubs have no specialist trainers.
Pressure to convince
Apparently, Kaidu – who is just breaking through at club level after U-20 keeper Daphine Nyayenga moved from Uganda Martys High School (UMHS) to She Corporate – was the subject of criticism on a women football WhatsApp forum.

The backlash shows that the current squad will be judged by how they match the progress of the previous U-17 group that played in these qualifiers in 2020 but those could be unfair comparisons.
“Let us look at the U-17 level as a grooming ground,” one journalist offered in the post-match chitchat last Friday.
The 2020 group that had Nyayenga, among others, beat Ethiopia and Tanzania before Covid-19 stuck and saw their final qualification battle with Cameroon cancelled.
Looking back at the 2020 group, which has since graduated to U-20 that lost to Ghana in the penultimate qualification round for Costa Rica 2022, they were under 17 but no novices in the game.

Defender Grace Aluka, for example, was a double topflight league winner with Kawempe Muslim. Ditto striker Juliet Nalukenge and defender Stella Musibika.
Fauzia Najjemba and Shamirah Nalugya had taken the league by storm playing for minnows Isra Academy. In fact Nalugya, Najjemba, Nalukenge and Aluka had already had senior national team, Crested Cranes, caps by the time the 2020 qualifiers started.
Hadijah Nandago, Shakira Nyinagahirwa and Catherine Nagadya were in the 2020 and U-20 squads and will therefore be demanded to produce more. But in Kitende, they seemed to fade in the quality.

In terms of match experience, the 2020 squad had also taken part and won the 2019 Cosafa and Cecafa U-17 tournaments to build cohesion and chemistry. 
The current squad only draws it’s familiarity from the fact that the bulk of players come from UMHS and Kawempe Muslim contributing 15 of the players.
The sides’ most potent attacker from the first leg, Kamiyati Naigaga, turns out for FWSL side Taggy High School, which is not even in the second division. 

Selection dilemma
Khalifa is unlikely to make wholesome changes but one name that could make the squad is left-back Farida Namirimu. She impressed in camp but could not make the first leg squad over paperwork.
Her availability would offer Khalifa a natural in a position where he gambled with Rebecca Nandhego and Esther Namusoke in the first leg.
Also Khalifa loves a forward with strength and shooting precision and that is probably why he is playing Nagadya centrally.

He will demand more from Brenda Munyana and Allen Nasaazi if they are to play centrally but also because he can do with Nagadya’s pace and crosses on the flanks.
The winner of the tie will face South Africa, who benefited from Fifa ban on Kenya to progress by walkover, with Egypt or Nigeria waiting for a place in the October 11-30 finals in India. 
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