What is to be made of the Cranes fans expecting Algeria to field a weak team?

When the Cranes discovered that they would go up against Algeria, Niger, and Tanzania in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers, a cautious optimism ran among its fans. While Algeria's Desert Foxes were widely expected to dominate Group F, as indeed they have, Milutin 'Micho' Sredojević's charges were not expected to make the dim back room of the table their home.

Power seemed to evaporate from the team with each day Micho served until Rogers Mato turned up with a smash-and-grab strike in Dar es Salaam at the backend of March. It is telling that the mind of your average Cranes fan still boggles at the enormity of the task that awaits their team on June 18.

Even more disturbing is the fact that the Cranes faithful are desperate that Algeria fields a weakened outfit in the penultimate Afcon qualifier set to be played in neutral territory. The North Africans took care of business with two matches to spare. Having done their job and by all accounts done it well, the hope is that Djamel Belmadi will wrap some of his prized assets in cotton wool. Far away from Khalid Aucho's lunging tackles. 

There is no indication that Belmadi is planning on doing the aforesaid. And, even if he was, there are no assurances that the Cranes—with a staggering two goals in four matches—will make the most of locking horns with a second-string side.

In fact, if the performances mustered in the ongoing campaign are to be used as a barometer, tension will continue wearing down Cranes fans. If it needs to be spelled out, the performances have been—let’s be frank—as regrettable as a bad marriage.

In the unlikely event that Micho pulls a rabbit out of the hat, will the Cranes not regret dining on the same table with African football’s aristocrats? The straight answer is yes. Laboured displays in regional tour matches have compelled the keen, if expressionless, eye to pay ardent attention to the Cranes' deficiencies. Of which there are many.

Micho— a tenacious, win-obsessed tactician in his heyday—has pursued with surprising regularity functional football. Except the end has not justified the means on a number of occasions.

Given such a grim scorecard, it will be in our best interests that the Cranes do not make the grade for the 2023 Afcon finals. Here is why: Watching the team at the big time will be such an eyesore. But then again failing to book a ticket to Ivory Coast will not prompt the necessary mixture of derision and alarm. While it will rouse the ire of Cranes fans whose inexpressible anguish and terror will be there for all to see, Fufa will not be tarred by the brush of failure. 

This lose-lose situation creates a chaotic mix of peril and promise as Uganda heads into the homestretch of the 2023 Afcon qualifiers. History holds out complexities. The Cranes failed to qualify for the 2021 Afcon finals after sandwiching a goalless draw against Burkina Faso with identical 1-0 losses on the road. The losses were inflicted by, wait for it, South Sudan and Malawi. 

After that qualifying campaign ended in ignominy, Fufa promised to spare no effort to get the Cranes back on the rails. Two years later, here we are hoping for a little favour from Algeria. If that is how getting homework assignments done looks like, the joke sits uneasily with the trauma of Cranes fans. This column spares a thought for them especially since Fufa officials seem tone-deaf to the fact that they lack any understanding of what progress looks like.

These are indeed desperate times for the Cranes. The mistake is in imagining that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The train's horn signals cannot come soon enough.