BENIN: Why did cranes falter?

Jun 09, 2008

<b>Fred Kaweesi</b><br><br>IT was the sort of scenario the entire country dreaded yet had half-expected: The Cranes suffering a humiliating defeat at this crucial stage of the 2010 Nations/World Cup qualifiers.

Fred Kaweesi

IT was the sort of scenario the entire country dreaded yet had half-expected: The Cranes suffering a humiliating defeat at this crucial stage of the 2010 Nations/World Cup qualifiers.

Yet on Sunday, the footballing nation’s worst nightmare came true as goalkeeping errors and a lethargic performance conspired to allot Uganda a catastrophic 4-1 defeat at the hands of Benin.

But with the nation still grieving from what was certainly the worst result the Cranes have endured since their shameful 4-0 loss to DR Congo in 2005; the return of Cranes’ four first team players appears to be the only possible hope.

If the Benin result proved one thing, then it was that team captain Ibrahim Sekagya, Noah ‘Babadi’ Kasule, Geoffrey Massa and Nestroy Kizito, excluded from the trip to Cotonou due to injury and domestic problems, will have to be fit if the Cranes are to safely negotiate Saturday’s qualifier against Angola.

The medical postmortem reports filtering through from the treatment rooms are the quadruple would be available for selection to strengthen a side whose defeat generated inquiries into what went wrong and what’s the way forward?

The Onyango factor
Goalkeeper Dennis Onyango has served Cranes well, but his confidence looks shot to pieces and his suspect decision-making, particularly in leaving his line early, contributed to three of Benin’s goals. But then we had expected far too much from a player who had been deprived of competitive football for almost a month at his SuperSport club in South Africa.

With Cranes’ next assignment against Angola is too close for any sort of radical changes, it is back to prayers with Onyango in goal on Saturday.

Poor strategy
But then, why would Onyango take all the blame?

Once again, we were undone by employing the wrong approach for an away game.

The Cranes were not only lacking in creativity but also fell short in several basics such as retaining possession.

Coach Laszlo Csaba had made three changes in personnel, Andrew Mwesigwa, Jimmy Kidega and Mike Sserumagga coming in for Sekagya, Kasule and Kizito.

The changes coincidentally denied the team a leader, a midfield spoiler and most importantly, a calm head on the pitch.

Ideally, a 4-3-3 formation, that would allow a congested midfield with just occassional attacks, and not an open 4-4-2 formation, would have worked superbly for the Cranes.

This qualifying campaign will certainly be the final nail in the coffin of Cranes’ ‘star’ system. Our supposed best players –– certainly our most famous names –– contributed precious little.

Midfielder David Obua’s input was negligible while Bajope is getting sloppy with every passing game.

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