By: Nassur Tab’an El-Tablaz
This has so far been a miserable season to be a KCCA FC fan. Football can be such a cruel game. Fans watch their team lose each week, but some losses are harder to take, whether because of the opponent or just the score. Some are so bad that even if you’re not a fan of the loser, it can still break your heart. Some losses are infuriating, while others are just humiliating. The toughest losses come on the biggest stages, but that doesn’t make the minor ones easier to bear. I must painfully chime in that last Friday’s KCCA FC’s loss to Jinja-based Busoga United was gut-wrenching. The Jinja side, playing in a city that, on the whole, didn’t care so much for the sport more than the recently concluded royal wedding of their traditional leader, the Kyabazinga, defeated one of Uganda’s best sides in league histroy. This defeat came just a week after KCCA FC had convincingly beaten their arch-rivals and defending champions, Vipers SC. Ouch. On a head-to-head, KCCA FC were unbeaten in 13 matches run against their hosts, having previously won 10 and drawn 3.
The Kasasiro Boys were looking to registering their first back-to-back wins in the 2023/24 Uganda Premier League season. They were also coming off a huge morale-boosting victory over Vipers SC. So it was a huge letdown when they allowed two very cheap goals to Ajo and missed their chance to climb the log out of the relegation zone. They may be last season’s near-champions, and may have affluent players like Muhammad Shaban, Mustafa Kiiza and Katenga, but the Mechanics (Busoga United) certainly didn’t care. The crazy part is, they couldn’t have asked for a better start when youngster, Ayella, standing in for the suspended Muhammad Shaban, technically and excellently finished inside the 18 yard area in the 27th minute. Ayella’s goal could’ve sent the teams into halftime at 1-0, but perhaps Ajo’s equalizer, allegedly coming off a handball from a corner earned from an offside position, was karma for Shaban’s second “non-goal” against Vipers SC a week earlier. It was 1-1 at halftime as Ajo capitalized on lacklustre clearance of a loose ball from a corner kick and leveled up matters.
Everyone expected the visitors to dominate, with the hosts content to sit back, absorb whatever was thrown at them and attack on the break. However, KCCA FC, this season, has played ‘lovely football’ but tended to lose their heads in the final third. Among the prominent supporters at the game was the KCCA FC CEO, Ms Anisha Muhoozi, who fans are blaming for the lack of a sense of continuity with her executive’s “diabolical” decision of changing managers within the season and letting go some proven league and national team players. Most importantly, Busoga United didn’t just sit back and watch KCCA FC pass the ball and jump at any possible counter-attack chance; they earned this victory. They didn’t walk into the waterlogged FUFA Technical Centre; they cantered in by beating KCCA FC 2-1, at Njeru. Ajo E scored in each half for their first ever league win against the garbage collectors. Who had seen that coming?
What a way to open your account as a manager and prove your credentials! Manager Abdallah Mubiru had just come in to rescue the floundering KCCA FC that is struggling to register consistency in the 2023/24 Star Times Uganda Premier League, but Busoga United put a huge damper on their chances. The look on the manager’s face at the end of the match was truly crushing. His bunch of unproven youngsters and clutch old players just embarrassed their supporters. KCCA FC hasn’t been anything close to the team they were under coach Mike Mutebi, but still, when a team the caliber of the Kasasiro Boys and with a roster full of purportedly good players recently recruited goes down to a side they have never lost to, it’s just humiliating. This loss leaves them hovering right in the relegation zone and the fans cursing the new manager’s appointment, even though he really hasn’t done a whole lot of coaching yet.
The most humiliating thing about this loss for KCCA FC is that they were about to settle for a respectable 1-1 draw after agreeing to play under terrible weather and the away fans having to 233.3% a higher entrance fee than the home fans. They were minutes away from another infamous and frustrating draw on the road, but another defensive lapse gifted Ajo the winner on a stroke of luck stealing the three points. The centrebacks misjudged a harmless through ball, Ajo pounced, ran away with it and coolly slotted it past the goalkeeper. The visitors had certainly played well enough for the win, which would’ve been their second in the league, and their first on the road this season. After Busoga United took the lead 5 minutes from the end of the game, it looked all but over for the garbage collectors as the ball boys started kicking balls onto the field of play to delay the restart of the game at every opportune moment. And there was only one winner after that.
Usama’s absolutely back-breaking shot from 30 yards out could have leveled the scores in stoppage time but it agonizingly went over the bar. This game just could not have been worse for KCCA FC. They just had to watch Busoga United canter over them to the 3 points. For the second time this season, KCCA FC lost an away game in the closing stages. The KCCA FC fans were silent the rest of the game. The players were vilified in the multitude of WhatsApp platforms of the KCCA FC fans. One of the fans, out of despair retorted, “I think we need to organize prayers, call sheikhs and pastors to a prayer day. Sometimes you watch the team play well, but it loses, and besides, all the three coaches so far can’t be wrong. Something isn’t right!” It remains to be seen whether the Kasasiro Boys will fight their way out of the abyss of relegation or drop to the Big League, Uganda’s second tier championship, next season! But very well done to Busoga United.
