Sande Bashaija
4 July 2009
Tororo — Few if any, saw it coming. After the elimination of champions Citizen Parents at the group stages, it looked like there wouldn't be any more shocks in the Coca-Cola U-14 Schools Cup.
The general feeling was that Citizen had bestowed their mantle to last year's losing finalists Kahunga-Bunyonyi from Fort Portal. Nonetheless, by the close of business on Thursday, Kahunga-Bunyonyi and 2007 champions Mackay Memorial (Rubaga) were also finalizing plans for their trips back home. Blame it on luck if you so wish, but this tournament will be best remembered for its shock results.
Coming into the quarterfinal fixture against Entebbe's New Life, Kahunga had scored the highest number of goals-12 in their three preliminary matches and betting against them was too risky a business. But in the absence of their suspended leading goal scorer Ronald Kikonyongo (8), last year's golden boot winner, Kahunga failed to hit the target despite creating a barrage of chances.
New Life were equally blunt and the goalless stalemate after regulation time was a big relief to the Entebbe side. Even after taking a 2-0 lead in the spot kicks, the unlucky Kahunga still exited the week-long tournament 3-2 and the scenes of some of their players collapsing in shock won't be forgotten soon.
While the boys from Tororo can claim to have been unlucky, Mackay had themselves to blame. At half time, the score sheet read 2-0 in their favour but they fell.
Quarterfinal results
Mackay 1 (3) – 3 (3) Nakivubo
Bunyonyi 0 (2) – 0 (3) New Life
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