Torn between the love for Uganda Cranes and nationalism, many Ugandans have decided this time, to keep their opinions to themselves after Uganda failed to qualify from the group at CHAN 2022 in Algeria for the sixth consecutive tournament. The sombre mood in the country that followed Uganda’s 1-3 defeat to Ivory Coast in the final Group game last Sunday left scenes of a grave yard in many public viewing places.

On social media, there were demands for the Cranes coach Micho to be sacked albeit doubts that their desire will see the light of day, while on FM radio and television stations during live sports pro-grammes, the public vented their frustrations with what they called ‘personalization’ of the national team.

Prior to the kick off the CHAN 2022 tournament, this column warned that the failure for FUFA to commit to specific measurable targets for Uganda was deliberate and bad for Ugandan football.

The fuzzy explanation by the Cranes coach as to why the best players in the league were not necessarily the ones who made the final squad to Algeria suggested a cover up.

Dull show

After scoring a single goal in open play after 270 minutes, the other; a penalty and conceding three goals, nothing makes sense anymore. One win, one draw, one defeat. Out of the tournament. The statistics, according to the Cranes technical committee, show a better performance than the outcome of failure to qualify from the group.

Apparently, accumulating four points having also obtained the same number at the 2020 tournament, shows stability considering that Senegal, Ivory Coast and DR Congo were the group opponents. At this point, any Ugandan who advances a different interpretation of the data is at worst an enemy of Uganda’s football and at best, carrying selfish motives.

What is indisputable however is that critics of the squad selection for CHAN 2022 have been absolved? Even better, those who have continued to question Micho’s defensive philosophy, which ended up with more goals conceded than, scored, are fully justified. That goal scoring continues to be Uganda’s greatest weakness at the international stage does not simply lie in the lack of natural goals scorers in our local league, true though it is.

At half the way stage of the 2022-23 season, no player had reached double figures.

Maroons’ Fred Amaku and Bright Stars’ Nelson Senkatuka are current top scorers with seven goals apiece in 14 games. Frank Ssebuufu, Uganda’s first choice centre forward at CHAN 2022, has three goals for Wakiso Giants. His striker partner Rodgers Mato of KCCA too, has three goals. Difficult to explain why the two were Uganda’s first choice and ever present. When you consider that Micho has continued to enstrange attacking creative players from his starting line ups in preference to defensive mid-fielders, his tactical mindset comes to the foe.

“Aware that criticism of the national team is not received well by those in charge, it’s at this juncture that they are reminded that the Cranes is a public good towards which every Ugandan reserves the right to comment.”

Lame excuses

The big picture of poorly marketing the StarTimes Uganda Premier League as a weak league based on the results at CHAN and the poor players who have left no story to write home about with the exception of the outstanding goal keeper Nafian Alionzi and Travis Mutyaba, has been lost on everyone connected with the technical team.

The conspirators who are advancing the theory that individual profiting from player agency business is at the heart of the Cranes poor fortunes have now been given the platform to cement their case. It’s hard to ignore them.

Even the best players would suffer with poor tactics especially if they don’t match their natural abilities. For this reason, it may be understandable why players like Moses Waiswa, Karim Watambala, Mutyaba, Mato, Titus Sematimba among other ball players in the team have failed to deliver at the big stage.

Aware that criticism of the national team is not received well by those in charge, it’s at this juncture that they are reminded that the Cranes is a public good towards which every Ugandan reserves the right to comment.

Those with foresight will know how dangerous it is to treat the national team as though it belonged to individuals.