Norman Katende
3 July 2009
Kampala — COACH Sam Timbe's believes that he can resurrect Atraco's chances of advancing to the CECAFA Club Championships quarterfinals despite seeing his charges succumb to two consecutive losses in the regional championships' Group A matches.
Now lying third in the group with a goal difference of negative six, Timbe believes that winning his last match against tournament paper-weights Kartileh from Djibouti can strengthen his bid of advancing as one of the two best losers, who will then join the top two from the three groups in the quarterfinals.
El Merreikh, twice 6-1 winners over Atraco and Djibouti's Kartileh, and Mathare United, who also beat Atraco 2-1 and Kartileh 3-0, have already advanced to the knock-out stages after accumulating an unassailable six points apiece.
The two clash in the final group match, which will determine which club finishes top of the table.
Mathare needs a win to usurp El Merreikh from the summit, while a positive result will favour El Merreikh, who boast of a superior goal difference.
Coach Timbe who won the Ugandan league title with SC Villa and Police FC believes that luck has not run out.
His players will need to be injected with psychological boost though, especially so after falling to Mathare with a strike that came at the 90th minute courtesy of substitute Kevin Oliech. Atraco's Mike Ssebalinga had cancelled Kevin Ochieng's 78th minute strike earlier.
Timbe will deploy his aces in attacking midfield. Johnson Bagoole, Ssebalinga, Aloa Gaseruka and Andre Lomani will be charged with setting a high tempo.
Regardless of the result, Timbe and Atraco will have to wait for tomorrow's Group B and Group C games to know who has advanced to the quarterfinals.
El Merreikh 6 Kartileh 1
Mathare 2 Atraco 1
Standings
Group A
P W D L F A PTS
Merreikh 2 2 0 0 12 2 6
Mathare 2 2 0 0 5 1 6
Atraco 2 0 0 2 2 8 0
Kartileh 2 0 0 2 1 9 0
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