Micho is caught up in a time warp that is doing Cranes more harm than good

Your columnist vividly—if fondly—remembers September 4, 2016. The day when our senior men’s national football team put a stop to a flurry of ill-fated Africa Cup of Nations or Afcon pursuits saw blue skies cloud over abruptly.

I remember the rain falling rapidly and in copious quantities a few minutes after climbing onto a boda boda. I arrived at Namboole drenched and not entirely sure that the performance of the Cranes would bring with it the requisite warmth.

While Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojević’s charges had demonstrated throughout that campaign that they were capable of warmth when the mood took them, they had also maintained a long association with near misses.

As such, there was always a lingering feeling that a slip-up at the last hurdle would see a ticket of any nature (a backdoor one, eventually) snatched from Uganda’s grasp.

Faruku Miya’s 36th minute go-ahead goal did not assuage these fears.

The calculus Cranes fans dealt with throughout that grand finale at Namboole had an elasticity that was almost weightless.

Spare a thought then for Ugandans who have to brave similar—if not more complex—arithmetic across the two remaining matchdays of the 2023 Afcon qualifying campaign.

There are a few things that make the current qualifying campaign eerily similar to its 2017 sister.

For one, the captains—both forwards hardly in a purple patch (à la Emma Okwi and Geoffrey Massa)—were set up as a fall guy.

Then, of course, there is Micho. After the heady heights of guiding Uganda to and featuring at the 2017 Afcon, he severed ties with Fufa over unfulfilled salary obligations.

A reunion seemed unfathomable; yet—against the odds—the Serb returned in 2021.

While the first spell in the Cranes dugout lends Micho’s work a rare intimacy and magnetic depth, the 53-year-old has struggled to find a sympathetic ear on his return. His functional football has doubtless been a sore point.

Whereas Micho’s pragmatism has rankled fans, who liken such conservatism to relics from the past, the Serb broke ranks with such an approach during Tuesday’s marginal win away to Tanzania. At least his bold second half substitutions suggested so.

This, though, was the last roll of the dice. Owing to this, it is hard to speak with finality about an epiphany (as some at Mengo have).

In fact, the old adage about the persistence of habits comes in quite handy here.

The safe bet is on Micho choosing to proceed with caution and circumspection during Uganda’s final 2023 Afcon qualifiers at home (sports minister Peter Ogwang has stuck his neck out on the match being played at Namboole) to runaway group leaders Algeria and away to basement side Niger.

It’s worth remembering why Fufa turned to Micho after the lab experiment with Johnathan McKinstry went sideways.

The Cranes failed to make the grade for the 2021 Afcon after suffering ignominious defeats at the hands of Malawi and South Sudan.

While hardly soft on the eye, Micho’s ruthlessly efficient style was supposed to shield Cranes fans from such embarrassments. Or heartaches.

The scorecard the Serb has, however, mustered is mixed. Results from matchups with Niger and Tanzania have left Cranes faithful wincing.

Fufa’s top brass has, however, vowed to cast its lot with Micho regardless. Its head—Moses Magogo—says the Serb is the right man to oversee the transition that the Cranes team finds itself caught up in.

Whereas Micho should be commended for blooding youngsters like Kenneth Semakula and Aziz Kayondo, his reliance on fossils like Joseph Benson Ochaya is rather vexing.

The Serb does not seem to be as surefooted as Sébastien Desabre was when he brought in fresh faces like Abdu Lumala, Moses Waiswa and Patrick Kaddu.

Such was the belief in the wisdom of his directing hand that Desabre guided Uganda to the 2019 Afcon with a game to spare.

The man who helped us snap our Afcon jinx on September 4, 2016, could yet take the Cranes back to the big time. He, however, seems to be stuck in a time warp. This, if it needs to be spelt out, is doing the Cranes more harm than good.