30 March 2011
Kampala — Uganda Cranes skipper Ibrahim Sekagya has been the bedrock of the gallant back four. He cuts supply to the opposing strikers with precision, controls the ball with calm under pressure and sometimes pops up with a necessary goal.
The Austria-based Red Bull Salzburg defender is so important to both club and country his absence causes chills. His significance to Salzburg even forced the club to rush him back from a torn ankle ligaments injury to feature in their league game on painkillers on March 12.
The 30-year-old started the buildup to Uganda’s winner against Guinea Bissau in the 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers on Saturday. He has also, alongside the hard as nails Andy Mwesigwa, ever present Simeon Masaba and stylish Nestroy Kizito (plus Godfrey Walusimbi against Angola), given Kenyan, Angolan and Bissauan strikers a bloody nose, keeping clean sheets in all three games.
But following two yellow cards picked in the games against Kenya in October and Guinea Bissau on Saturday, Sekagya will miss Uganda’s crucial return leg on June 4. However, at a party hosted by Lawrence Mulindwa after the Bissau victory, the Fufa president promised to have Sekagya here to morale-boost the team.
Team morale
And Bobby will be pleased by Mulindwa’s effort, especially that Sekagya’s presence will add that much needed morale from the dressing room leader and that the European football season will be finished then. “Of course he will be a big miss,” Bobby told Daily Monitor yesterday, “He is our captain.” “But I always look upon these situations as an opportunity for someone else to show what they can do.”
Candidates for the slot will likely be Simba’s Joseph Owino, St George’s Isaac Isinde and Bidvest’s Timothy Batabaire. Bobby, however, warned against complacency after Uganda’s first qualifiers win in West Africa, insisting “we are not there yet”.
“The next game is the most important,” he said on the team’s arrival at Entebbe Airport on Monday, “After that, it’s the next.” Six home points against Guinea Bissau and Kenya will seal qualification since 1978 but seven, including a draw in Angola, will put it beyond any doubts.
Uganda’s three final fixtures
Uganda v Guinea Bissau, June 4
Angola v Uganda, September 3
Uganda v Kenya, October 8
PW D LFAGDPs
Uganda 321040+47
Kenya 3111 2204
G.Bissau 310212-13
Angola 310225-33
AllAfrica – All the Time
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Uganda: Sekagya Absence a Chance for Others, Says Bobby