Uganda: Can Uganda Cranes Qualify for 2025 Afcon?

Qualification for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) is going to be the shortest process in a long time. While Afcon qualifiers have previously run for at least a year, this one is going to take place for just three months, beginning this week, and wrapping up in November.

The games will be coming in thick and fast, which requires the players to get off the mark from the onset. Cranes are in group 'K' alongside South Africa, Congo-Brazzaville and South Sudan. On paper, this looks like an easy group, raising the prospects of Cranes qualifying for Africa's greatest football showpiece for the first time since 2019.

However, will it be that straightforward for Cranes, who are ranked 94 in the world against South Sudan (167), Congo (113) and South Africa (59)? A total of 24 teams will be taking part in the 2025 Afcon. And considering that there are 12 groups in this campaign, there will be two teams making it to Morocco from each of them. Uganda's Fifa ranking makes them favourites for a top-two slot.

In fact, former Cranes coach Moses Basena said: "While South Africa are the top seeds in our group, they are not as formidable as they used to be twenty years ago. Cranes should possibly go toe-to-toe with them. It would not be out of this world if Cranes got a point off them."

According to Basena, if Cranes got a point away against South Africa this Friday, September 6, that should boost their campaign against the lesser sides, South Sudan and Congo. So, the start is crucial. But looking at past meetings, Cranes has lost to South Africa in competitive games.

Back in the 2006 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, Cranes lost both home (0-1) and away (1-2) to South Africa. Their last meeting, however, which was a friendly in June 2021, under coach Abdallah Mubiru, Cranes lost 2-3. Against that background, Cranes do not have a good record against the 1996 Afcon champions.

Besides, South Africa, who finished third in the 2024 Afcon in February, seem to have regained their confidence and form. The Cranes will have to put up a solid performance to keep them at bay during the campaign. Yet, that means that The Cranes have do to defend well throughout the qualifiers.

Previously, especially under former coaches Milutin 'Micho' Sredojevich and Sebastien Desabre, under whom Cranes last qualified for Afcon, they were a very difficult side to break down. For example, in the 2017 Afcon qualifiers, out of the six games, Cranes kept four clean sheets.

The team only conceded two goals in that campaign. In addition, during the 2019 Afcon qualifiers, Cranes kept five clean sheets, only conceding thrice in the sixth game, a dead rubber against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. But when you look at The Cranes presently, in the four 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, they have conceded four times. In the 2024 Afcon qualifiers, Cranes conceded six goals in six games.

Against that, Basena noted that while the team had its struggles scoring goals, keeping clean sheets was a foundation for the team's success. However, that is not to say that having a reliable goal-getter is pertinent. In the last four World Cup qualifiers, Cranes have scored four goals.

"With Geoffrey Massa and Farouk Miya, we always had that confidence that we would win by that odd goal. But at the same time, the reliability of Dennis Onyango in goal gave us confidence," Basena said.

Notably, Cranes should be confident that they should be able to beat South Sudan and Congo to second place, at least, in this group. But you can bet on one fact, too, that those two teams view Cranes as being there for the taking. In the 2021 Afcon qualifiers, Cranes lost to South Sudan and Malawi, whom they were ranked higher than. That tells the story about how tricky the three-months qualifiers are bound to be.

jovi@observer.ug

Uganda: Can Uganda Cranes Qualify for 2025 Afcon?

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