African Games

Result

Final

Ghana 1 Uganda 0

Coach Morley Byekwaso said a lapse in defence cost them a gold medal against Ghana at the African Games.

Byekwaso was speaking after Uganda lost to Ghana 1-0 late in the final at the Accra Sports Stadium.

“We played well in the first half, but football is football. In the second half, they (Ghana) came up with numbers in our defence which disturbed us. Our goalkeeper (Abdul Magada) didn’t have that composure of letting us play, and in the end we resorted to long balls yet our team had like five short players. After we realised that, we started playing again and we got two chances, but we didn’t take them away. And our opponents punished us for that,” he stated.

Forward Jerry Afriyie struck in final minutes of the game after captain Rogers Torach and his goalkeeper Magada failed to communicate, and costing Uganda a gold medal at the 13th edition of the games.

During the AFCON U20 final in Mauritania, 2021, Daniel Afriyie scored a brace as Uganda lost the game 2-0. It was also the same case in 1978 AFCON final when late Opoku Afriyie scored a brace as Uganda went down 2-0 to Ghana.

Reaching the final was Uganda’s biggest achievement in the African Games since previously they had only made it to the semifinal.

Goalkeeper Magada who had a good performance in the final after making several point blank saves revealed this has motivated them to perform better in the next engagements.

“We have not won but we still continue to believe in ourselves since we have other tournaments to play. I know we can do better than this if we get another opportunity. It’s not easy to play hosts when they have a big fan base. But this helps us to grow as players,” Magada stressed out.