Kawempe meet opponents with lofty ambitions

Doves made the semis and finished third while Corporate reached the finals and lost to Tanzania’s Simba Queens, who would later make the semis of the final tournament under Ugandan coach Charles Ayiekoh.

KQ, on the other hand, were hosts but fell in the group stages with a highly regarded squad.

Kawempe confront a group that has Simba, Burundi’s 2021 representatives PVP Buyenzi and Djibouti’s 2021 and 2023 representatives FAD.

“We want to win the tournament, that is for sure,” Kawempe coach Ayub Khalifa said.

“We know that we face experienced sides but women’s football is unpredictable. The most unexpected things happen there,” he added.

The history

FAD have been the whipping girls for Ugandan teams and Kawempe will hope to keep the trend on August 24. Doves beat them 5-0 in Nairobi while KQ beat them 6-1 at Fufa Technical Centre, Njeru. She Corporate faced another Djibouti side in GRFC in Dar-es-Salaam and beat it 8-0.

Doves beat PVP Buyenzi 3-0 but She Corporate did not get to meet a Burundian side. However, KQ lost 2-1 to Buja Queens last year.

“Burundian football has made a lot of progress if you look at their national team. Last year, their representative (Buja) had players from all over the region and that made them a tricky side too.

"We do not know how they will approach the tournament this time but we are prepared for anything,” Khalifa said.

Ambitions galore

Some of the players that represented Buja last year were on loan from Simba and have since returned to the Tanzania side. In fact, they are in the squad that Simba announced for the competition yesterday. Those include left back Ruth Ingosi, her Kenyan midfield counterparts Vivian Corazone and Elizabeth Wambui plus Burundi’s Asha Djafari.

Kenyan forward Jentrix Shikangwa is also back for Simba that has included Congolese defender Daniela Ngoyi and Nigerian midfielders Mary Saiki and Precious Onyanyeshi to their squad. Now that is a squad with a continental flavor built with an eye on the final prize.

Khalifa and his assistant Moses Nkata come with a lot of knowledge about the Cecafa-born players and although they need to first make the knockout stages, they are mostly concerned by the competitiveness of the Kenyans. Kenya will be represented by Police Bullets.

“The scouting on our (Ugandan) side is a bit lacking so you cannot easily build such a squad and ours is definitely a bit thin for the final tournament. Unfortunately, the transfer window closes a few days before the end of the qualifiers. If it was closing earlier, maybe we would know the right players from the region to add to the squad in preparation for the final tournament,” Khalifa explained.

Central Bank of Ethiopia have also lost two finals and a semifinal – to Corporate – so come to a home competition with a lot to fight for.

“We cannot stress enough how much we want to win and keep pioneering the growth of women’s football in Uganda. It would be nice to be the first Ugandan team to make the final tournament but also, no one has sent us there to win. It will not be a crime if we do not,” Khalifa added.

Caf Women’s Champions League

Cecafa Qualifiers – Ethiopia (August 17 – September 4)

Stadiums: Addis Ababa, Abebe Bikila

Group A: Central Bank Ethiopia, Kenya Police Bullets, Yei Joint Stars (South Sudan), Warriors Queens (Zanzibar), Rayon Sports (Rwanda)

Group B: Simba Queens (Tanzania), Kawempe Muslim (Uganda), PVP Buyenzi (Burundi), FAD Djibouti

Kawempe Fixtures

August 18: PVP Buyenzi – Abebe Bikila, 1pm

August 21: Simba Queens – Abebe Bikila, 1pm

August 24: FAD Djibouti – Addis Ababa, 3pm