URN.Coach Micho says that the early preparations are meant to boost the fitness levels of players who are in the off-season.
The Uganda Cranes are counting on early preparations to ignite the team ahead of the 2022 African Nations Championship-CHAN qualifiers.
Uganda Cranes Head Coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic has named a provisional squad of 40 players to embark on preparations. The team will enter a residential camp at Cranes Paradise Hotel, Kisaasi on Monday to start fresh drills by testing the fitness levels of the players.
Coach Micho says that the early preparations are meant to boost the fitness levels of players who are in the off-season.
“With our target set at qualifying to the final tournament for the final tournament, we have to start preparing early enough. Players are still in the off-season and that explains why we need to start preparing early. We shall have to break the arrangements into three aspects including fitness, match situation, and competitive phase”. Micho said.
The team has five goalkeepers, fifteen defenders, eight midfielders, and twelve forwards. Goalkeepers include Nafian Alionzi, Richard Anyama, Emmanuel Kalyowa, Denis Otim, Mathias Muwanga.
Uganda is yet to know which opponent they will face in the qualifiers, however, according to round one draws for the qualifiers that were conducted in Cairo, Egypt in May 2022, Uganda got a bye in the first round and will wait for the winner between Tanzania and Somalia.
Although the two teams (Tanzania and Somalia) are yet to faceoff to decide the winner, Uganda’s coach Micho says Tanzania has an upper hand in the fixture considering that the two fixtures will be played in Dar-es-salaam.
“Having in mind that Tanzania has a doubleheader against Somalia with both games played in Dar es Salaam, chances are high that we will face Tanzania though I do not want to rule out the surprise element of football,” he started.
According to the fixtures, the winner between Somalia and Tanzania will host Uganda between the 26th -29th of August. The return leg will be played at St. Mary’s Stadium, Kitende with the winner on aggregate qualifying for the final tournament slated for January 2023 in Algeria.
The CHAN 2023 tournament was initially slated for 10 July to 1 August 2022, but the African Soccer governing body- CAF rescheduled it to January 2023, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Uganda is seeking to qualify for the sixth time having appeared at the previous five editions 2011, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021. But, Uganda Cranes failed to impress in the last editions of the championship.
During the last edition, Uganda exited with only one point after suffering an embarrassing 5-2 defeat to Morocco in the last Group C match, the team drew with Rwanda and lost to Togo respectively in the first two group games.
Morocco is defending champions after defeating Mali in the final of the 2021 edition staged in Cameroon.
