Uganda Cranes Head Coach Paul Joseph Put has hinged the team’s dismal performance at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on the lack of maturity and experience.
The team finished bottom in Group C, with one point from the three games. The Cranes lost 3-1 to Tunisia and Nigeria and drew 1-1 against Tanzania.
Put while adrressing the media on Tuesday after the 3-1 loss to Nigeria was quick to concede, his team was not up standards.
“You could see the difference in quality, difference in the individual players. Also we had a young team with a few players who have participated at AFCON before so we were lacking in maturity and experience.” He said.
Only Denis Onyango, Khalid Aucho, Isaac Muleme and Salim Omar Jamal had played at AFCON before.
Coach Put believes, the lessons picked from Morocco will help the team ahead of the 2027 AFCON that will be co-hosted by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
“The focus should turn to 2027 AFCON which we will host. Definitely, we have learnt some lessons here and these players will not be the same going forward,” said Put.
If 2025 AFCON has showed anything, coach Paul Put has a daunting task to improve the team across all the departments. Uganda Cranes looked terrible both in defence and attack in all the three games played at the tournament.
The qualification campaign to 2027 AFCON is expected to commence in March next year.
They missed coach Sam Simbwa. Former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter said, that foreign coaches don’t click with the local player’s psychology. Sam Simbwa filled that gap. FUFA should not have changed the coaching crew when the team is not settled. You make those kind of changes when you have a stable and mature team.
Some of the young players Paul Put is talking about have been to major CAF youth tournaments. So it’s not like they are completely green.
Also, this team played worse at AFCON than the qualifiers. It was as if Put doesn’t know his players or team yet.
The team also lacked leadership on the field. Clearly missed Cabradossi. And when Onyango came off as captain, another goalie, Salim Magoola took over the armband.
FUFA should revive the goalkeeping clinics Paul Ssali and other ex-goalies held. Our goalies have issues that can be fixed if they want to work on them.
The biggest issue though was the mindset. Going on strike and missing training over bonuses just before the first game was a dumb move. it showed the players were not serious.
FUFA and the government need to revisit their incentives to prevent this from happening again.