Yes, we acknowledge that this limits our preparations a little bit. As a national team coach, we would want to have all our players from day one of our training camps but equally we want our club teams to be successful in continental competitions, so for us, we are supporting KCCA as they try to push forward in their competition as we would support any Ugandan team in continental competition.
The youthful Cranes tactician has confirmed the Garbage Collectors players will join the national team at a later date. He has, however, challenged those who will report early to prove they have what it takes to deserve a place in the final squad.
“They are a stubborn side and going by their recent results, you may look at them as underdogs but we know what they can be capable of and we don’t intend to leave anything to chance,” Kajoba told the club’s official website.
“We hope we can have improved performance and get the three points because it’s very important for us.”
Vipers, who were crowned the league champions for the last campaign after the Federation of Uganda Football Association (Fufa) moved to end the season owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, will also be buoyed by the fact their rivals KCCA FC lost 2-1 to URA FC on Friday.
Results of the coronavirus detection test conducted on Uganda professional player Emmanuel Okwi of Al Ittihad Club of Alexandria before leaving his country showed that the player was infected and tested positive. The player had taken this test in preparation for returning to Egypt to join his team for training and matches, but the positive test has led to the postponement of his return to a later date. Our heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery to our Ugandan striker Emmanuel.
Okwi was part of the Johnathan McKinstry-led charges who played South Sudan in Group B of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier.
In the first game played at Kasarani on Wednesday, November 11, M changama Youssouf put Comoros ahead from a free-kick which was expertly taken, wrong-footing Arnold Origi in the Kenya goal, but Masoud Juma equalised for in the second half, after going down to the visitors who had to play with 10 men for the better part of the game.
In the second match played four days later in Moroni, Mohamed Ben El-Fardou and Mattoir Faiz scored the goals for Les Coelacantes and the Harambee Stars denied them a clean sheet courtesy of Cliff Nyakeya’s effort.
Uganda have dropped three positions. They are now placed in the 79th position with 1307 points.