Laid back atmosphere at Namboole

By Joseph Batte

IN the first leg of the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier a fortnight ago, Uganda Cranes had done the needful.

They had flown to the oven-like Dares- Salaam but turned tables on their hosts.

Coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic was over the moon.

He crooned after the 1-0 win: “We have got the passports and not the visas to South Africa.”

In Kampala, the press did their part in the build up to the return leg. All expectations were that it would be a full house as Cranes games always are, but strangely that was not to be. 

The mood on Saturday was laid back. In the city, it was business as usual, fewer people donned Cranes replica shirts and traffic noise was made up of the usual din of car horns instead of the constant buzz of vuvuzelas.

There was no mad scramble for tickets at the last hour.

Normal situation

Jinja Road, which usually gets clogged with football fans, some of who can be seen hanging perilously in car windows, as they make their way to Namboole was ‘normal.’

Pickpockets also had a bad day at the office. Why was that so? Well, you have to apply logic.

The CHAN tournament features only our baby-faced homegrown players, some of who are still at school. Ugandan fans want to see the big boys.

The fact is they have not yet warmed up to the CHAN tournament because they feel it lacks the prestige of the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup.

If the Cranes had turned on the heat in Dar es Salaam, there is no way Tanzania would give us the same treatment at own slaughter house.

At Namboole, the main gate had been turned into market by hawkers who sold various items including Cranes replica jerseys.

But once inside the stadium, empty tiers gaped at us.