Tanzania humbles Uganda in CECAFA U-18 Boys Championship

By Emmanuel Sekago

The journey of seeing Uganda win the U-18 cecafa championship started on a very bad note yesterday at the Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega, Kenya.

In a highly contested match, Tanzania proved a point and humbled Uganda 1-0, despite arriving on Saturday by road, the Tanzanian team looked fresh and was up to task scoring through Wilson Sharif after 15 minutes. Sharif made no mistake curling in a free-kick that beat Uganda’s goalkeeper Abdu Magada.

The two teams continued to create scoring chances under the wet ground. Uganda later introduced Travis Mutyaba in the second half, but the Dinamo Tbilisi player in Georgia also found the going tough on the wet surface.

Habibu Kondo Kikwayu, the Tanzanian coach said it was good to start with a win against a strong Ugandan team. ” We need to keep working hard because there are many more games in this competition to be played, ” added Kikwayu.

The Uganda coach Morley Byekwaso Ochama said although his team created many scoring opportunities, they need to be more clinical. ” Even the wet surface with a lot of water affected us, but we must prepare and bounce back strongly, ” he added.

The earlier match saw Zanzibar defeat South Sudan 1-0. thanks to Moh’d Moh’d Ali  who netted the lone goal for Tanzania after 12 minutes. South Sudan tried to fight back, but failed to break the defending department of the Zanzibar team. The 15-year old Lazarus Peter George Laku who was the top scorer at the recent CECAFA U-15 Boys Championship also featured for the South Sudan team.

Tanzania and Zanzibar having  picked wins in their opening Group B matches at the on-going CECAFA U-18 Boys Championship 2023 in Kenya they both tied on 3points .

Meanwhile, action returns tomorrow  on Tuesday in Group A as host nation  Kenya face off Rwanda, while Somalia take on Sudan in the second match at the Jomo Kenyatta Stadium in Kisumu.