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Cranes talk up EA derby
Focused. Cranes players Halid Lwaliwa (foreground), Richard Basangwa and captain Emma Okwi (background) partake in a stretching exercise. PHOTO/EDDE CHICCO
Hosts Kenya and Uganda will each be hoping to put their best foot forward when they face off at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi in Group E’s second 2022 World Cup qualifying match tomorrow.
Mali host Rwanda in the other group match today. The Uganda Cranes will welcome home Mali four days after the Nairobi clash as Kenya visit Kigali. Now, regional derbies do not come bigger than Kenya versus Uganda, with the Cranes last major visit to Nairobi in the 2012 Afcon qualifiers ending goalless. The two were to fire blanks again in Kampala as the Cranes painfully lost group leadership and the campaign on the last day of qualification.
Captain Emmanuel Okwi and coach Micho Sredojevic’s side will hope for better fortunes this time, although their final 2-1 friendly defeat to Ethiopia showed they will have to dig deepest.
“This will be one more episode of unending derby between Uganda and Kenya,” acknowledged Micho after the team checked into their Nairobi hotel yesterday. “I am happy to be coming here in Nairobi. It is a measurement of test and character.
“It will be a very tough match. There is too much at stake. It is very hard to play against players that you know.
“We shall be playing a team that has a very big advantage. Our league is in recess because of the off season.”
Small margins
Micho, who is famed for understanding African football like the back of his hand, added: “It will be a match where small details will decide. “We shall be doing everything that those details go our way.’
His captain, Okwi, having faced Kenya several times, called tomorrow’s clash a do or die affair.
“We need maximum points to have a good start in the qualifiers,” he said.
The Cranes are lodged in at Tamarind Tree Hotel, along Langata Road in the Kenyan capital, and had their first training in Nairobi last evening.
Twenty players, who left the Bahir Dar base, were joined in Nairobi by Isaac Muleme (Viktoria Žižkov, Czech Republic), Mustapha Kizza (CF Montréal, Canada), and Derrick Nsibambi (Smouha, Egypt).
On their part, hosts Kenya had six players including superstar Michael Olunga, Richard Odada, Masud Juma, Kenneth Muguna, Ian Otieno and Eric Ouma join them. Kenya coach Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee believes he summoned the best squad to do the job.
