By James Robert Kayindi
Sports Club Villa will today entertain the league holders, Vipers at Mandela national stadium, Namboole in the Azam Uganda Premier League (AUPL) in front of Azam TV cameras.
The epic match will have a curtain raiser when the juniors of both teams clash in the FUFA U-17 Junior League. The match between the two young sides was scheduled for Sunday, 4th October but both teams agreed that it be played on the same day before their superiors’ battle it out, an idea that was well embraced by the management of the youngsters’ league. It’s expected to kick off at around 1pm.
According to Vipers’ official website, this is what the FUFA Competitions Director, Ali Mwebe had to say about the idea; “The two clubs have exhibited an extreme level of maturity and cooperation required in the development of the game, as FUFA we can only bless and support the proposed move. The U-17 game will therefore come before the senior sides play their league game.”
On the other hand, last season’s MVP, Farouk Miya will once again have the opportunity to point his shooting guns at the Jogoos after their efforts to sign him during the transfer window hit a snag.
Apparently, the 16-time record champions approached Vipers in a bid to sign the play maker but failed to meet his price tag of 1 million USD.
Erisa Ssekisambu will also be available to torment his former club that he helped win the 2015 Uganda Cup.
At the moment, all odds seem to be against the Jogoos who are placed 11th on the log with eight points while their arch rivals are second with 11 points.
Besides the difference in table positions, statistics also place Villa in a very unfavorable spot to win this epic encounter. Villa hasn’t tasted victory against the league holders since the 2007/2008 season, and have only beaten the Buikwe side thrice in 20 matches, with eight draws while Vipers have ran off with 11 wins.
The two side’s last encounter was the season’s curtain raiser when the two met in the FUFA Super Cup which Vipers won having edged the Jogoo Salongo by 5-3 on penalties that followed a goalless draw in normal time.
Besides the game being shifted from Nakivubo stadium to Namboole, the fixture has also been surrounded with a lot of media attention suggesting that Villa have lost their assistant coach Francisco Martinez who is currently in Spain for reasons that are yet to be clarified even when Villa insist that he left for family reasons and will soon return to resume his duties.
This implies that Uganda Cup winner, Ibrahim Kirya will step in to help the Spaniard Antonio Flores on the technical bench.
Email Robert: Robert.k.circles@gmail.com