Uganda Cranes winger, Moses Oloya was part of the 10 man Binh Duong side that held Chinese club Jiangsu Suning to a 1-1 draw in the opening match of the Asian Group E Champions League.
The Chinese free spending side with two latest signings Ramires and Alex Teixeira on board took the lead as early as the 13th minute when former Manchester City striker Jo created the opener for Ji Xiang. Nguyen Ahn Duc equalized for Binh Duong from the penalty kick two minutes from the half hour mark.
Ramires, recently signed from Chelsea, went close with a first-half volley. The Vietnamese team was reduced to 10 men midway through the second half but held on to take a point.
Binh Duong football club is yet to play FC Tokyo of Japan and South Korea’s Jeonbuk Motors F.C.
Also in Group E, FC Tokyo lost at South Korean champion Jeonbuk Motors 2-1 as veteran striker Lee Dong-gook scored the winning goal.
Another Chinese club, Shandong Luneng, came back from a goal down to win 2-1 at Japanese champion Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Group F.
Brazil striker Diego Tardelli scored the winning goal with 12 minutes remaining. Kohei Shimizu had put the hosts ahead in the 64th with Yang Xu quickly equalising for the Chinese team.
FC Seoul took first place in Group F with a 6-0 win at Thai club Buriram United. Brazilian striker Adriano scored four in his debut in the tournament.
In Group A, Uzbek club Lokomotiv Tashkent held two-time champion Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia to a 1-1 draw.
Luciano Pereira scored goals in each half to lead Sepahan of Iran to a 2-0 win over Al Nasr of the United Arab Emirates in the other group A match.
In Group B, Al Nassr captain Hussein Abdul Ghani scored a late equalizer at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as the home side drew 3-3 with Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor.
At Doha, Qatar in the other Group B match, Mahdi Rajabzadeh’s goal in the opening minute of the second half gave Iran’s Zob Ahan a 1-0 away win over Qatar league champions Lekhwiya.
‘This was the best possible start,’ said winning coach Yahya Golmohammadi. ‘We tried our best to avoid conceding goals … Winning this away match will give us a big push and hopefully we can maintain this advantage in the next match.’
Oloya’s form and activeness is a great development to the Uganda Cranes’ technical department at a time there are less than 25 days to the group D double header against Burkina Faso for the AFCON 2017 qualifiers.
2016 Asia Champions League (Selected Results)
Group E:
Binh Duong (Vietnam) 1-1 Jiangsu Suning (China)
FC Tokyo (Japan) 1-2 Jeonbuk Motors (South Korea)
Group A:
Lokomotiv Tashkent (Uzbekistan) 1-1 Al Ittihad (Saudi Arabia)
Sepahan (Iran ) 2-0 Al Nasr (United Arab Emirates)
Group B:
Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia) 3-3 Bunyodkor (Uzbekistan)
Zob Ahan (Iran) 1-0 Lekhwiya (Qatar)
Group F:
Shandong Luneng (China) 2-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima (Japan)
FC Seoul (South Korea) 6-0 Buriram United (Thailand)