Micho turns focus to CHAN

By James Bakama

CHAN

July 12: Tanzania v Uganda

AFTER guiding the Cranes to two consecutive wins in the Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifiers, coach Milutin “Micho” Sredojevich returns to the national team bench this week with yet another mission.

Micho, who jets in from Rwanda today, is shifting focus to locally based players, who will next month travel to Dar es Salaam for an African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Tanzania.

CHAN is a CAF competition that is exclusively for home based African players. Uganda qualified for the final CHAN tournament in Sudan in 2011 thereby getting a bye from the preliminaries of this year’s qualifiers.

Uganda put up a poor show at the last tournament in Khartoum where they failed to make it from their group after losing all their matches. The next tournament will be in South Africa next year.

That the local season was marred by confusion with two leagues, presents Micho with a hard task of building a strong side that can overcome a seriously prepared Tanzanian team.

Unlike their Ugandan counterparts, all senior Tanzania national team players are based at home. The country has also had a very competitive league.

Well aware of these challenges, Micho has promised to do his best with all national teams. 

“All I need is cooperation from all Ugandans and the future will be good,” Micho promised as he was being unveiled by FUFA president Lawrence Mulindwa last month.

Uganda will be praying for a repeat of the 2011 CHAN qualifiers when it beat Tanzania home and away to qualify for the final tournament.

Tanzania left Namboole celebrating after a 2-1 first leg loss. They were confident the result could be easily overturned.

But the second leg turned into a nightmare for the hosts a fortnight later in Dar es Salaam when Uganda won 3-1. It was a pulsating game that had Emma Okwi missing a second minute penalty.

Okwi however later redeemed himself with a goal in a match that also had Hamis Kizza scoring and Ivan Bukenya sent off. 

Uganda was however unimpressive at the final tournament in Sudan, losing their opening game 2-0 to Algeria. Sudan also edged Uganda 1-0 before Gabon also defeating Uganda 2-1.

The tournament is held every two years, alternating with the Africa Cup of Nations.

The qualifying phase has taken place every even year and the final every odd year. From now on it has swapped years with Africa Cup of Nations.