Focus on World Cup after heartbreaks

The Uganda U-20 women’s national team are four matches away from their dream of making the World Cup in Costa Rica in August 2022.
It can be argued that the senior team Crested Cranes are about the same distance away from the 2023 World Cup.
It has not been a rosy road for the U-20s. They have had to show on more than one occasion that they can win even when things are not going their way.
Their qualification campaign started with a first round bye and they showed it was deserved with a resounding 10-3 aggregate win over neighbours Kenya in the second round in October.

But before they could take on South Africa in the third round on December 3 at St. Mary’s Stadium Kitende and December 17 in Johannesburg, coach Ayub Khalifa’s troops were involved in the Cecafa U-20 Women Championship at Fufa Technical Centre in Njeru in November.
Uganda did the necessary business beating Burundi, Djibouti, Eretria and Tanzania to make the maximum 12 points. 
The only problem was that Ethiopia got the wins too.
 
But so high was Uganda’s confidence that in the opener against Burundi, Uganda’s goals in a 5-1 win sealed a century of goals for the coach and majority of the squad as national youth teams (U-17 and U-20) players. Uganda looked set for another fairy tale run when they scored twice in the first half through Hadijah Nandago and captain Fauzia Najjemba to lead 2-0 over Ethiopia in the final match of the round robin tournament.

But despite a red card to their goalkeeper Eyerusalem Lorato and later coach Firew Hailegebral, Ethiopia turned on a late second half show to beat Uganda 3-2 and win the inaugural Cecafa U-20 Women Championship.
The defeat was Khalifa’s second in 21 matches over two years as U-17 and U-20 coach although the first one – a 2-1 loss away to Tanzania in the 2020 U-17 World Cup qualifiers was inconsequential as Uganda overturned the result with a 5-0 win at home.
This one against Ethiopia was a reality check for a team that was only two weeks away from the South Africa encounter.

Uganda won 1-0 in Kitende with the coach proclaiming they were back to winning ways. Before they could travel to Johannesburg, Uganda shut up any doubters by going away to Tanzania for a friendly to celebrate the latter’s Independence and won 1-0.
At Dobsonville Stadium in South Africa, Uganda was sterile in front of goal but defended resolutely when called upon to draw 0-0 and win the tie 1-0 on aggregate.
Up next is five-time U-20 World Cup participants Ghana in next year’s penultimate round. The winner of this tie plays either Ethiopia or Tanzania for a place in Costa Rica.

World Cup offer for Crested Cranes
Meanwhile, the senior team Crested Cranes’ fate is also in the hands of neighbours Kenya.
Having eliminated Ethiopia on penalties in October in the first round, Uganda plays Kenya in the final qualification round of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON).
Triumph then can open up a chance to qualify for the 2023 Fifa Women World Cup as the four semifinalists at AWCON earn an automatic spot to New Zealand and Australia.

Beating Ethiopia
Ethiopia and their captain Loza Abera went to Kitende high on reputation having eliminated Uganda from the 2018 Olympic qualifiers.
Uganda were really an unknown quantity even to themselves. Coach George Lutalo had only been in his position for weeks after replacing Faridah Bulega, who went to Nairobi for a coaching course.
Lutalo’s first assignment ended in disappointment as Uganda was ousted from the Cosafa Women Championship in South Africa at the group stages having beaten only Eswatini 5-1, drawn 0-0 to Namibia and lost 1-0 to Zambia.

But goals from Riticia Nabbosa and Fauzia Najjemba made home advantage count in Kitende as Uganda beat Ethiopia 2-0.
Najjemba goal including her top scoring exploits for the U-20s would later in the year earn her the Airtel-Fufa Women Footballer of the Year award.
However, back on pitch, Lutalo’s charges nearly made a mess of that advantage by letting Ethiopia level the tie with a 2-0 lead in the first half of the return leg at Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa.
Uganda managed to see out the game in the second half and won the penalty shootout 2-1 to secure that tie against Kenya.

The weight of expectation will also need to be managed and should Uganda beat their eastern neighbours, the expanded Awcon from July 2 to 23, 2022 in Morocco calls.
The continental tournament has been expanded from eight to 12 teams and potentially half of those could be at World Cup, which has also expanded from 24 to 32 teams.
After the semifinalists, the next two highly ranked teams will enter a ten-team inter-confederation play-off tournament that will decide the final three spots at the World Cup after each continent gets their quota. 

Lady Doves cave in
Uganda, however, need to know that they could be so near yet so far like Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) champions Lady Doves.
The Masindi side was highly confident about their chances of making it to the inaugural Caf Women’s Champions League held in Cairo, Egypt in November and won by South Africa side Mamelodi Sundowns.
Midfielder Sarah Nakuya blazed her penalty wide during the shootouts as CBE won 5-3 on penalties moments after a 1-1 regular time score.

Their consolation was with goalkeeper Daisy Nakaziro being named goalkeeper of the tournament as had been the case in the league.
In the shortened version of the FWSL played in Njeru, she was joined among the gongs by teammate Fazila Ikwaput as most valuable player and top scorer.
Ikwaput played through injury as they beat Kawempe Muslim 1-0 in the semifinal playoffs and Uganda Christian University (UCU) in the finals.
She Mak and Isra Academy were relegated to the lower tier.

She Maroons, Rines promoted
Meanwhile, in the second tier, She Maroons striker Millicent Namwembe scored the lone goal to lead her side to a 1-0 win over Rines SS in the finals of the Fufa Women Elite League (FWEL) also held in tournament format – first with four groups – in Njeru.
The sides had already been promoted to the top tier Fufa Women Super League by virtue of their semi-final win and She Maroons coach Alex Sidi termed the trophy as “a bonus, the icing on the cake.”