Preps for under-17 Afcon leave a lot to be desired

The roots of the bad optics can be traced back to last month’s shocking decision to sever ties with Peter Onen. The unassuming coach achieved what hardly looked like modest success by guiding Uganda to the big time.
After getting muted applause on his return from a successful mission, Fufa ensured that Onen’s feat would further go unnoticed by sending him on gardening leave.

A Fufa insider told this column that the federation’s top brass had initially wanted to headhunt a European coach with a track record in age grade football. Fufa reckoned it could get a coach that fitted such a bill on the cheap.

But after failing in that regard, the federation now finds itself in a dubious mess.

After spending the past few months wrapped up in knots, the under-17 team - also known as the Cubs - commenced preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations finals slated to run from April 14-28 in Tanzania.

Two Sundays ago, the team enter residential camp at the Fufa Technical Cente in Njeru.

The new month will find Cubs players in Antalya, Turkey. Jackson Magera, who is tactically calling the shots in Njeru, is expected to continue doing just that in Antalya and possibly Tanzania.

Fufa, whose reluctance to admit to mistakes made is plain in sight, has been relentless in its positive depiction of the state of affairs.
Magera is expected to hit the ground running since the team is dotted with players from the Fufa Juniors League. Which is just as well. The primal figure in the KCCA Soccer Academy, Magera not only has a glorious record in age grade football.

He has also been running the rule over the Fufa Juniors League for a protracted period.

His lack of experience at the international level, however, means any reliance on him will invite comparisons with a gamble.

Gambles of course do pay off at times. Fortune favours the brave and bold.

Or so we are told. This notwithstanding, we should not shy away from stating the obvious: after pressing the reset button by sacking Onen, Fufa has not only looked panic-stricken but also immediately gone into damage limitation mode.
This tale could well have an ugly ending.

Of 80-minute rugby, shapes and sizes in topflight

Rugby, a centuries-old saying is quick to remind us, is a sport for all shapes and sizes.
And yet gameweek after gameweek this season, Nile Special Rugby Premiership fans have become accustomed to seeing big ball-carriers charge into opponents to exploit weight disparities.

Rugby will of course always remain a test of strength where contact is sought. But it can just as well be decided in the mind.

The brain can trump brawn and when it does, what a marvel to behold!

Top clash
Take last weekend’s top-of-the-table clash between Kobs and Heathens. Many expected a full-blooded and uncompromising contest with collisions predominating.

And to a large extent they got to see players batter their way into traffic and over the gain-line.

But they also got to see Joseph Aredo at his scintillating best. The pencil thin fullback was easy on the eye, running into gaps and his speed of thought for making split-second tactical decisions was second to none.

If there were any doubts among Ugandan egg ball lovers as to equalising effect of rugby, there was Aredo to remind them that size hardly matters.
Yet purists, who are not particularly sold on gym before skills, did not have it all their way on the day.

The durability of Heathens or be it in a losing effort showed that conditioning is a long word and more.
The Kyadondo-based outfit is the very embodiment of an outfit whose unremitting confrontation stretches into the last minute of the stipulated eighty. Not many Premiership teams can lay claim to that.

Certainly not Kobs who lost this season’s reverse fixture after Michael Wokorach’s late try not only caught them cold but utterly jaded.

Last weekend, Kobs’ forwards coach Fred Mudoola was at pains to explain just why his charges can’t get a dial on playing 80-minute rugby against Heathens.

Strength & conditioning
Could it be that the men in blue are choosing not to emphasise strength and conditioning because they believe it will be to the detriment of the ability to think? If so, can’t a trade-off be struck?

It is hard to engage Heathens in a dogfight in the final quarter of a match because of their superior fitness.

That makeshift gym at Kyadondo must count for something!
When the temperature of a match is at its highest, Heathens stay cool.
They always seem to be safe in the knowledge that they will dominate teams in set-pieces and assail them at the breakdown. Maybe size does matter after all!

What we now know....

We know that local basketball governing body, Fuba will hold its elective general assembly today. Delegates will choose who between Grace Kwizera and Nasser Sserunjogi replaces Ambrose Tashobya as president.

We know that gloves were well and truly taken off at the homestretch of the electioneering process.

Kwizera, who has talked up his capabilities of entering purposeful relationships, has come out to question if at all Sserunjogi has points of convergence with National Council of Sports (NCS).

We know that Sserunjogi squared off with NCS’s Patrick Ogwel in the past, even dragging the general secretary to court.
So, Kwizera has been asking: can the two bury the hatchet and work together?

The quick answer from Sserunjogi? Why not! The polls should be an exciting affair.

@robertmadoi
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