As always, business around Mandela National stadium flows on a high when Uganda Cranes is hosting a home fixture.
Traffic jam becomes unbelievably thick as fans flock the stadium as early as 9 a.m.
It was no different on Sunday, 15th November 2015 when Cranes humiliated Togo 3-0 to advance 4-0 on aggregate and qualify to the group stages of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Sound deafening instruments, famously tagged the Vuvuzelas are now the order of the day since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
So they were at Namboole on the day.
Ugandans doing everything possible to render unlimited support to their beloved country from face painting to donning Uganda Cranes replica jerseys.
The teams’ warm up session was welcomed in a combination of the DJ mixes and the African instrument.
Familiar roars graced the stadium as the referee of the day Keita Yakhouba led the teams out of the dugout onto the pitch. Songs of praises kept flowing as the guest of honor vice president Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi inspected the teams.
At this time, Nambole was three quarters full though, partly because of the direct sun heating.
This though didn’t stop fans from flooding the stadium especially after that early Geoffrey Massa goal – Uganda Cranes’ first.
By the time Farouk Miya’s first goal, the Cranes second that sent the already jubilant fans to a standstill arrived, Nambole was full to capacity.
The mood at the stadium had nothing but joyous written all over it as fans held “Micho the special one”, “2018 World cup Russia here we come” banners confidently.
Considering the fact that Togo ended Uganda Cranes’ unbeaten record of 10 years at home, the Cranes needed their twelfth player to execute the remaining job perfectly and it’s exactly what happened as fans cheered from the very first minute to the game death.
A convincing win it was, a deserved for that matter.
Join me and the rest of Ugandans as we say 2018 World cup Russia here we come.
Fans, keep the fire burning.
The writer is an ardent follower of Ugandan sports, football in particular