Johnathan McKinstry and his coaching staff have tough decisions to make on the final 23 man squad for the Chan tournament, the Uganda Cranes admitted. Uganda beat Zambia 2-0 courtesy of an own goal from the Chipolopolo goalkeeper after good work by Steven Mukwala and another by Viane Ssekajugo.
This was Cranes’ second game in the PRE-Chan tournament after drawing 1-1 with hosts Cameroon in the first game. McKinstry made ten changes in the starting eleven with only veteran Tonny Mawejje retaining his place for 45 minutes, a move that was pre-planned.
“Overall, I thought that the ten players, who came in, put on a good performance. To win 2-0 against a quality Zambia team, I felt we deserved it because we created quality chances in the game,” said McKinstry.
“Zambia created chances as well, but I felt they were more of half-chances compared to ours which were quality chances. And when you create good chances, you are most probably going to score. I was pleased with the guys; I was pleased with their application. I thought this was a more difficult game than the Cameroon game,” he continued.
We are happy with the two games played so far. As a coaching staff, that gives us big decisions to make because had the first game been good and the second one bad, then it makes it easier to pick the final team.
The former Sierra Leone and Rwanda coach also revealed why they made wholesale changes to the team for the game against the Chipolopolo.
“We are very pleased following our first game in Cameroon,” the Irishman said, adding; “After what was a very positive performance against the hosts a few days ago, we decided to change basically everybody in the team” Johnathan McKinstry pushed on
“We maintained only one player in Tony (Mawejje) but that was purely to make sure that our midfield had the right balance. But we knew that he would come off at half time and Shafiq (Kagimu) would come in. We knew what subs were going to come on and the players knew as well.” he added.
So far, 25 players are in Cameroon and a couple from KCCA are expected to join after their CAF Confederation Cup against AS Kigali on Wednesday.
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