Hippos falter
Najib Yiga grimaces after going down. The U20s failed to put South Sudan in their place yesterday. PHOTO/JOHN BATANUDDE
The changes to the Cecafa U-20 tournament that is also the regional qualifier to the Afcon U-20 finals is such that every game is like a final. Only the three group winners and the best placed second team from the groups progress to the semi-final.
Consequently, a failure by national U-20 team, the Hippos, to claim maxi-mum points against South Sudan means they will need nothing less than a victory against Burundi tomorrow if they are to progress to the knockout stages of the nine-team competition.
This is after Morley Byekwaso’s side yesterday played out a goalless draw against South Sudan in the opening Group B fixture played at Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium in Arusha, Tanzania.
At one moment, it looked like they would even struggle to claim a point after defender Musa Ramathan was sent off for shoving an opponent to the ground as the Hippos prepared to take a freekick.
The South Sudan player clearly overreacted but such is the law these days that it would be foolhardy for Ramathan to think he would have gotten away with his reaction.
It left the Hippos with a man less for 65 minutes and came at a time when Byekwaso’s charges were on top of proceedings with Ivan Asaba running the show and drawing fouls from dangerous scoring positions.
But the youngsters struggled for cohesion and to create clear-cut opportunities overall in a repeat of uninspired performances when they hosted a similar tournament last year leading to a quarterfinal elimination by eventual champions Tanzania. Anything short of an improved performance tomorrow will see calculators drawn – or even worse.
For South Sudan, it caps an impressive last fortnight against supposedly bigger opposition who their senior side narrowly lost to before avenging that Afcon qualifier defeat with an identical 1-0 win of their own last week.
Hippos XI
Jack Komakech (GK) 2.Gavin Mugweri (C) 3.Aziz Kayondo 4.Kenneth Ssemakula 5. Musa Ramathan 6.Bobosi Byaruhanga 7.Steven Sserwadda 8.Najib Yiga (88′ Joseph Kafumbe) 9. Richard Basangwa (85′ 10-Isma Mugulusi) 10.Raymond Onyai (62′ Ivan Bogere) 11.Ivan Asaba
