Ssimbwa To Cranes: Go For Early Goals

Sam Ssimbwa
Sunday, 18th May 2014
Madagascar Vs Uganda (Afcon 2015 2nd round Qualifier)
At Rabermanajara Stadium – 2 pm Ugandan time
Former Uganda international and later has a short stint as interim head coach Sam Ssimbwa has told The Cranes to go for early goals on Sunday afternoon when they start their 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying campaign away to Madagascar on Sunday.
Speaking to Red Pepper on Thursday afternoon, Ssimbwa who currently coaches Rwanda top tier side Police FC but on holiday in Kampala says that early goals would delight Ugandans who have been used to the team not scoring away in fact, coach Milutin ‘Micho’s Sredojevic will have to map out a good strategy that will counter the home side and avoid the ‘bad travellers’ tag.
“It would be great if we can get the goals early and then control the game whichever way even if we drew. We need to try to get early goals to kill them off,” Simbwa says.
First choice goalkeeper Robert Odongkara is likely to join Tony Mawejje, Godfrey Walusimbi and Geoffrey Massa out of the Sunday game while unconfirmed reports indicate that Bidvest Wits’ Dennis Onyango is likely to connect to Madagascar after his side’s game in South Africa on Saturday.
Micho will today name his 19-man travelling party from a pool of the current 25 in camp before the team flies out on Friday via Kenya Airways.
In their last meeting in 1983, Madagascar beat Uganda Cranes 1-0 at home before winning 2-1 in Kampala.
The winner between these two sides will face the winner between Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea in the final phase of the preliminary round.