By Ivan Zoric
Former Head Coach SCVU,
As a follower of Kenyan football and former head coach and team manager of Sports Club Victoria University(Uganda),this is my prediction and match analysis on the upcoming gruelling match between two neighbours Kenya and Uganda .
About AFC Leopards is not necessary to speak too much. This is one of the biggest clubs and brand in East African football. A Club with many trophies in domestic Kenyan premier league,and many appearance in all CAF competition,club as they mark 50 years of existence.
For me,AFC Leopards was one of the major candidate for winning CECAFA BASIN NILE CUP with Al-Marreikh of Sudan.
Ingwe took maximum points in A group,and finished 1st in group stage. They went through quarter-final and semi-final,and face the role of major candidate for winning a tournament.
But, AFC Leopards who were faced with many problems in the near past,and also faced a low position in domestic Kenyan premier league as they shuffled between coaches.
I think this problems from the past in AFC Leopards will not affect their result and will simply contribute for stabilization for up coming competitive obligations.
AFC is a definitely a favorite on the paper against SCVU from Uganda,but for alot of people SCVU is the biggest surprise on this competition,but not for me.
There are many things about SCVU that people in Kenya and other neighbouring countries don t know about.
This is the first time that Ingwe will play against SCVU,but let me say afew words about SCVU.
SCVU have reached the Inaugural Cecafa Nile Basin cup final without 3 key players (Denis Iguma,Savio Kabugo,Isaac Muleme ,this players were part of the Uganda Cranes national team for Afcon 2015 qualifers against Madagascar. SCUV finished second in Group A(Same number of points as Al Merreikh who had a better goal difference) without losing any single game and without conceding a goal in 5 games before this final game.
I can assure that SCVU is a one of the fastest growing clubs in Africa!
SCVU has been in existence for only 3 years and in this short period of time ,SCVU was promote to FUFA Super League in 1st season then in the 2nd season in elite competition,SCVU finished 5th place and winning CUP of Uganda, which ensured the participated in CAF Confederation cup .
In the 3rd season, SCVU was a candidate for champions title in FSL,unfortunately,they finished second ,but this result should not be considered as failure.
SCVU from Uganda was established in 2011 asnd they have continued to constantly produce players for the national team even from the time they were in the second division.They have always had from 3-5 players in the Uganda Cranes shortlist.
Believe me, I don t know any club from Africa (not even from Europe) who for only 3 years of existence ,have achieved this type of results as they constantly curve great progress every year as their goal go higher and higher and become more achievable.
From the time when I was be a Head Coach of SCVU only few players are still on the current squad (Denis Iguma,Kabugo Savio,Ali Kimera,Martin Mpuga,Noah Semmakula, maybe Lopidia Henry)
Anyway,SCVU have shown that is a club who will in the near future be a significant factor in domestic league and regional international football competitionsacross Africa.
From one side we have AFC Leopards with lot of experience on International competitions,one of the biggest club in East-Africa who came to the competition doing badly in their own domestic league as they took many with surprise from another side SCVU is a fast growing club in the region,with a very good team who have shown excellent performance on this tournament and it’s a team with huge desire to achieve and leave a mark in their 2nd international appearance in clubs competition.
However I cannot predict today’s results…this is a final…specific game…single details can decide a winner of this game.
One thing is for sure,we will see one good game at the finals and both teams will give their best to wis inaugural Cecafa Nile Basin Cup trophy.
lets enjoy a good football performance.