International Club Friendly
Onduparaka vs. Gor Mahia, 4pm (Fee: Shs5000 & Shs15000 in VIP)
IT was Muhammad Shaban who made the point in the opening half of the Uganda Premier League season that prizes can be won in December. The striker was in an offensive frame of mind back then scoring half of the team’s 16 first round league goals, attempting to calm the waters after many local players were snubbed by Uganda Cranes’ technical bosses for the trip to Gabon 2017.
At a different stage of a new year, and with his club Onduparaka in finer fettle, he feels the same now. Pleased as he is with his club’s display in the local league first round, Shaban does not want to look back on few minutes in Uganda’s Afcon games and talk about how well the team were doing but did not win a single game. There is a feeling among his other teammates at the Arua-based club that they are a long way from home and the 2018 Chan Championship qualifiers big roaster of local players to choose from hardly encourages complacency.
“What’s important is that we keep winning. And it’s important having the fans behind us,” says the star forward Shaban.
Onduparaka is the only team, located outside Kampala Metropolitan that is making progress. Unlike the past decades of the Uganda Football league, where the only teams that were winning games would be coming from Kampala Metropolitan and has kept the unbeaten record on all home games.
And they today afternoon they take on 15-time Kenyan league champions, Gor Mahia at Mandela National Stadium, Namboole in a high profile friendly game aimed at fine tuning their new recruits like Isma Babu (Seychelles), Geoffrey Lwo and Fahad Tokoahead of Wednesday’s opening second round game against Proline.
You can not get a better challenge than from Cecafa region’s biggest football club – Gor Mahia.
