Cranes Travel With Enemies to Guinea Bissau

Andrew Mwanguhya

25 March 2011

Send a thief to catch a thief, goes the shady adage. Now, what is certain is the Os Djurtus (Guinea Bissau team) and the Cranes were the thieves in this case.

What we’re not sure of is whether the coming together was a coincidence. If it wasn’t, then the mafia who dispatched either thief is a star timekeeper.

At least the Cranes were not aware they were going to travel on the same Senegal Airlines plane with the dangerous Fox yesterday. Os Djurtus is creole for a species of fox.

“We just realised we were with the Guinea Bissau team on the same plane when we were inside,” leftback Nestroy Kizito told Daily Monitor, adding that they reached Bissau at 9am (Midday in Uganda).

The Guinea Bissauans, who host Uganda in the 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers tomorrow, were returning from Senegal where they, according to Kizito, were also training from. We could not independently verify this by press time.

The Cranes have also been acclimatising in Dakar, Senegal, whose climate is similar to that of neighbouring Bissau. There was little or less chat between the two groups, according to the Partisan Belgrade stylish defender, but his probing eyes noticed something.

Dangerous midfielder and Kizito’s teammate at Partisan Almami Samori da Silva, popularly known as Moreira, was a missing sight on the plane.

“We came with the entire Guinea Bissau team on the same plane but I really didn’t see him,” said Kizito. “Whether he is going to play, I don’t know. But I can tell you he is a very good player.”

Fears Uganda

Moreira played all Partisan’s games in the Champions League qualifiers and against Arsenal in the competition proper, scoring four goals. He also played his country’s last two qualifiers.

Back in Serbia, they occasionally talked about tomorrow’s fixture. “He knows a little about Uganda but he fears us. He told me our team is very strong and is not topping the group by accident.”

Nonetheless, the focused Kizito, who also admitted ignorance about the West Africans, believes his Cranes mates have what it takes to control Moreira and his colleagues. For now, we can sigh with relief; the Crane reached her destination alive in the face of a hungry Fox.

Uganda’s hope is she completes the survival in the 90-minute action, and possibly come back home with a fur or two. Game live on Akaboozi.

Cranes squad

Goalkeepers: Dennis Onyango (Mpumalaga, SA), Hamza Muwonge (Bunna)

Defenders: Nestroy Kizito (Partizan, Serbia), Andy Mwesigwa (FC Ordabasy, Kazakhstan), Ibrahim Sekagya (Salzburg, Austria), Isaac Isinde (St George, Ethiopia), Godfrey Walusimbi (Bunna), Simon Masaba (URA).

Midfielders: Musa Mudde (Sofapaka, Kenya), Vincent Kayizzi (Novi Pazar, Serbia), Tonny Mawejje (IBV, Iceland),Joseph Kabagambe (El Neel, Sudan), Mike Mutyaba (Bunna), Owen Kasule (Bunna), David Obua (Hearts, Scotland)

Strikers: Godfrey Sserunkuma (Bid vest, SA), Geoffrey Massa (Itesalat, Egypt), Emma Okwi (Simba, Tz)

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