Karungi’s time to shine

Denmark-based goalkeeper Vanessa Edith Karungi is in line to make her mark as the women’s national team goalkeeper on Wednesday.

Karungi is a seasoned national team campaigner but has played second or even third fiddle behind captain Ruth Aturo and at times Daisy Nakaziro for a while.

However, the former is nursing a shoulder injury since the Caf Women’s Champions League Cecafa Zonal Qualifiers last month. And she apparently worsens it with every dive.

Nakaziro is good competition and has all reasons to believe she should be Aturo’s deputy. She was the custodian when Crested Cranes won the Cecafa Championship last year and kept a clean sheet in the second leg of the Olympic Qualifier against Rwanda in June. Uganda was flirting with elimination after a 3-3 draw in the first leg with Aturo in goal but won the second leg 1-0.

Nakaziro, however, quickly lost form and struggled in the Champions League qualifiers last month. Since then, there has been an outcry for Karungi to be trusted between the sticks when Crested Cranes host Algeria in the first leg of the first round of the 2024 Women Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) Qualifiers at Fufa Technical Centre, Njeru.

Karungi burst onto the scene in 2017 as a shootouts queen. Her saves then helped Olila High School and Mukono High School to the Fufa Women Cup and National Post Primary Schools (NPP) titles respectively.

From Olila, she moved to She Corporate in 2018 and only left in 2021 after B 93 Copenhagen came calling.

Happy to return

“I am happy to be back in the set up after over a year away from the team,” said Karungi, who went to Wafcon 2022 but missed the Olympic Qualifiers against Rwanda in June as she was settling in at her new club Nordsjaelland.

“I had my first session with the team (on Sunday) and I am excited that we have to push to achieve another dream.

"I know that we already have the support of the fans but I hope that they can also come physically and sport the team towards this dream,” she added.

If she gets the nod, Karungi gets into a team that is shot of confidence at the back and will need to restore calmness, especially now that coach Ayub Khalifa is going to be forced into making changes.

His preferred right-back Samalie Nakacwa is out due to school commitments while centre-back Aisha Nantongo is yet to travel back home after also securing a move to Danish side Aalborg BK last month.

“We still have a problem at the back and we need to find ways of reducing the number of goals we concede,” Khalifa said after a friendly in which they won 5-3 against a Kampala Select side last week.

AT A GLANCE

Name: Vanessa Edith Karungi

Parents: Francis Byamukama & Betty Akello Otekat

Birth date: November 8, 1999

Club: Nordsjaelland

2016: She Corporate

2016-2018: Olila HS

2018-2021: She Corporate

2021-2023: B 93 Copenhagen

Schools: Kyebambe Girls (PLE), Kakungulu Memorial (UCE), Mukono High School (UACE)