Cranes build up to Nations Cup qualifiers

May 08, 2017

According to Coach Micho’s program, foreign-based players will join their home-based counterparts on May 28.

PIC: Uganda Cranes coach Micho

KAMPALA - The latest program for Uganda Cranes will see the team camp at one of the high altitude centres in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on their way to play Cape Verde in their first 2019 Africa Nations Cup qualifier next month.

The program will prepare Uganda Cranes teams for both the 2019 Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Cape Verde and Central-East Zone Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) slot contest against South Sudan in June 11 and July 14 respectively.

According to Coach Micho's program, foreign-based players will join their home-based counterparts on May 28 before they head for the camp in Addis Ababa on June 1.

The Cranes will then play Ethiopia in a friendly match on June 3 before setting off for Senegal's capital Dakar for another friendly on June 5.

After the friendly, the team will continue camping in Dakar for five more days before connecting to Cape Verde where they will play the 2019 AFCON qualifiers on June 11.

According to Micho, the camp in Ethiopia will help his team acclimatize to a high altitude that they will meet in Cape Verde.

Addis Ababa lies on 7526ft with a weather of 22°C on the Great Rift Valley while Cape Verde capital Praia is on 1,332ft in western coast of the African continent, near Senegal with 27°C.

 Sredejovic confirmed that he has invited 18 foreign-based players to start preparations for what FUFA has dubbed the Cameroon 2019 Project.

"We shall not build our team from sentiment and the players' past (records). We want the best for 2019 qualifiers," he told a press conference at FUFA House in Mengo.

Micho said that the program will start on May 22 with non-residential training of home-based players from the Azam Uganda Premier League, FUFA Big League and the University Football League, a few of whom will join the foreign-based players.

"Cape Verde will not be walk in the park. They have players in European leagues. They know much about us (Uganda). Besides other than Burkina Faso, no other team has beaten them where we are going to play them."

 

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