A lot of questions have been asked as to why Uganda Cranes regulars Aucho Khalid and Murushid Jjuuko didn’t start in the 3-0 defeat away to Tanzania.
With Hassan Wasswa suspended, Sebastien Desabre was expected to name Jjuuko alongside any of Timothy Awany or Halid Lwaliwa and or the versatile Kirizestom Ntambi but Jjuuko was no show on the evening.
Aucho also sat out as Taddeo Lwanga shielded the defence but the question has been answered.
“It was difficult for us today,” said Desabre. “We went a goal down early and failed to manage the first spell of the game,” he added before explaining the omission of the duo.
We had to manage players with yellow cards like Aucho and Jjuuko because it’s very important to have the whole team during the first game of the Afcon.
Desabre’s excuse makes sense in regards to the previous Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon 2017 where ironically both Aucho and Jjuuko missed the opener due to accumulated bookings in the qualifiers.
The explanation is not satisfactory enough.How about Odongkara,Joseph Ochaya,did we really need Onyango for this match! There are also questions on the form and whether there was proper follow up on whether some players are having first team club football at their respective clubs.What hanned to players including inform Micheal Azira,Kalungi,Bevis Mugabi,Isaac Isinde,Dan Serunkuuma,Luwagga Kizito,Mukiibi,Kateregga,the list is long!! Or else if we knew we have less interest in da game Uganda would have fielded strictly local based players to gauge the crop and performance of the players to feature in the upcoming Afcon for local based players.Otherewise it was a shame on a country like Uganda and this might be interpreted as pre planned move in favour of Tz. fielding a relatively weak and disjointed team..This performance has a big impact on whichever player featured in the TZ vs Ug game .Hopefully Fifa and CAF won’t come up in future with investigations into the underperformance of the National Team.