International Friendly Matches

Wednesday result

CAR 1-0 Uganda

Stade General Seyni Kountche

Saturday, June 2

Niger vs Uganda

Stade General Seyni Kountche

By Denis West

Every coach is as good as his last result. Uganda Cranes head coach Sebatien Desabre, who replaced moses Basena in December, is still in a spot of bother.

Whilst honing his best Cranes side  he wants to sweep the next four Afcon qualifiers and storm the Cameroon tourney, Desabre is facing numerous tactical  hurdles.

Ironically, the 41 year old French coach has won once in eight outings – 3-1 against lowly Sao Tome and Principe in a friendly match at Namboole.

He deserves every benefit of doubt he can get from Ugandans but what is worrying is the slow pace at which he is ironing out his ‘dream side’.

At the Chan tourney in Morocco in January, where he lost to Zambia (3-1), Namibia (1-0) and drew with Ivory Coast (0-0), Desabre was scrutinizing  the crème dela crème  of the local league and you would expect him to have collected the best there is in the Uganda premier league after watching over 20 matches.

When Uganda played Malawi (0-0) and Sao Tome in March, Desabre turned to professional players giving a handful of local based players like Abraham Ndugwa playing time.

Not more than seven UPL players made the trip to Niger this week to play for Cranes in the friendly games against Central African Republic (1-0) and Niger (set for Saturday).

Desabre seems not to have found that creative player he wants to link play in the Cranes and thus went for Cape Town winger Allan Kateregga but as it turned out on Wednesday night, he is not the lasting remedy. Kateregga was substituted after half time for Egypt based Isaac Muleme as was Farouk Miya for William Luwagga Kizito.

Apart from the creative dilemma, Desabre now has to work on the ever present scoring burden that was too on the show in the 1-0 loss to CAR. When Ralph Kottoy netted for CAR midway the match at the Stade Général Seyni Kountché in Niamey, strikers Yunus Sentamu, Milton Karisa and Emmanuel Okwi couldn’t conjure up an equalizer in a game of few chances. Yet, Desabre also needs to keep what his predecessor Micho Sredojevic had tamed – the haunting ghosts of obviously losing every away game.

We now know that Desabre will be building his team mainly around foreign based players and giving local based players less time. We also know that the Frenchman, having  coached at ASEC Mimosas (Cote D’Ivoire), Coton Sport Garoua (Cameroon), ES Tunis (Tunisia), Clube Recreativo Desportivo Libolo (Angola), Dubai Club (United Arab Emirates4), JS Saoura (Algeria), Wydad Athletic Club (Morocco) and Ismaily (Egypt) at club level, is struggling to adapt to life as a national team coach. How fast he can get into the national team groove is another issue all together.

We can also comfortably conclude that in the first years of Desabre, the team will be more focused on getting results and then expect the attacking flair he promised later on in his three year stay.

Lastly, we know that Desabre will not stop soon in giving all available Ugandan players chance to impress and be sure of seeing more European born players, youngsters and ‘forgotten’ players in the Cranes squad all exhibiting their potential to Desabre.

Afcon 2019 Qualifiers

 September 7

Uganda vs Tanzania

October 10

Uganda vs Lesotho

October 13

Lesotho vs Uganda

November 16

Uganda vs Cape Verde

March 22, 2019

Tanzania vs Uganda

Matches Desabre has been in charge of Uganda Cranes

30th May 2018: Central African Republic 1-0 Uganda (International Friendly)

27th March 2018: Uganda Cranes 0-0 Malawi (International Friendly Match)

24th March 2018: Uganda Cranes 3-1 Sao Tome and Principe (International Friendly Match)

22nd January 2018: Uganda Cranes 0-0 Ivory Coast (CHAN 2018)

18th January 2018: Uganda Cranes 0-1 Namibia (CHAN 2018)

14th January 2018: Zambia 3-1 Uganda (CHAN 2018)

10th January 2018: Uganda Cranes 0-1 Congo (International Friendly Match)

6th January 2018: Uganda Cranes 1-1 Guinea