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Uganda: Postponement Could Signal an Ominous Sign for Cranes
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New Vision (Kampala)
22 June 2008
Posted to the web 23 June 2008
Paul Mbuga
Kampala
THE last time the Uganda Cranes had a qualifying fixture postponed, the development was greeted with mild irritation but expect a greater sense of doom to prevail this time.
Last year, Uganda flew to Maseru to play against Lesotho in a match scheduled for June 17, but a comical mix-up in the appointed referees' visa applications ensured they did not arrive in time.
The game was postponed by a day and the Cranes -- oozing with confidence ahead of the original encounter -- could only eke out a 0-0 draw against the hosts.
The team's forwards were guilty of some atrocious finishing, but FUFA was convinced that the re-scheduling of the match had done their concentration little good and flirted with the idea of appealing to CAF, African football's governing body, that the game be replayed. It was a vain effort.
FUFA's manouevring aside, the Lesotho result -- the Crocodiles barely offered any resistance -- turned out to be the one that broke the back of the Cranes' qualification campaign for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations that Ghana hosted early this year, and not the failure to score more than three goals against Niger in the final qualifier in September.
Sense of foreboding
The events in Luanda over the past two days will again precipitate an unnerving sense of déjà vu, for any football player will pointedly concede that after a match for which one has revved himself is postponed, concentration and motivation can dip beyond redemption.
The Nigerian referees appointed to officiate the fixture yester-afternoon were undone by a flight delay, and the match will be played later today.
That will inevitably herald an anxious wait, but the stakes will not change.
The tortuous process to determine the eight best runners-up who will accompany the twelve group winners to the next qualifying phase in October makes the permutations abundantly clear: a draw or a win is a must for the Cranes to keep their destiny firmly in their hands and stand a realistic chance of winning the group altogether.
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That is not an easy task for Angola are keen on exacting revenge after being stung by the 3-1 battering they received at the hands of the Cranes in Kampala.
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