By James Robert Kayindi
Uganda’s representative at the ongoing Kagame cup in Rwanda, Kampala Capital City Authority are set to battle it out with Sudan giants El Merriekh in the semifinals of the tournament. KCCA FC reached the semifinal stages of the CECAFA Kagame cup after eliminating South Sudan’s Atlabara FC after beating them by three goals to one (3-1) in the quarter finals on Wednesday evening.
In a game dominated by the ‘kasasiro boys’, they took the lead as early as after 3minutes into the game. Brian Majwega netted for the Ugandan champions after he tapped the ball into an empty net thanks to Brian Umony’s brilliant pass which left goalie Mpenzi Jecko beaten. Besides taking an early lead in the game, they were however twice denied the chance to extend their lead through the Brians (Umony and Majwega) due to poor finishing. Their continued dominance in the game continued to be more evident when they doubled their early lead in the 33rd minute through Brian Umony’s magnificent free kick on the edge of the 18 yard box. The free kick followed a foul against Brian Majwega as he tried to break through Atlabara FC’s wall into the 18 yards box.
At the 11th hour the first half, Tom Masiko had a great opportunity to make it 3-0 but shot wide with the goal at his mercy from Isaac Ntege’s cross. Trailing by 2-0 at half time, Leo Adraa’s side came out into the second half well rejuvenated and more determined to level the game as they threatened KCC FC’s goal in the 50th minute but Dak Kujbor’s shot flew just by inches over the bar. The early threat into the second half saw Nsimbe’s boys sitting back to defend their lead and waited to hit back on the counter attack as Atlabara FC enjoyed dominating possession.
With about 25minutes into the second half, George ‘Best’ Nsimbe was forced to make a tough decision to take off goalkeeper Yasin Mugabi who didn’t look fine at the time and replaced him with Martin Elungati who was only making his debut for the Ugandan representatives. 16minutes to the blow of the final whistle, KCCA’s bench went all smiles and screaming after they had taken their lead extended beyond Atlabara FC’s reach through Hakim Ssenkumba who made no mistake to exquisitely connect Brian Umony’s cross to score his first goal of the tournament and KCCA FC’s third on the day.
Atlabara were awarded a penalty in the 87th minute after Habib Kavuma’s hash tackle on Nelson Mandela John and Olivier Paul made no mistake but send Elungati the wrong way for his side’s consolation.
KCC FC and El Merriekh face off today at around 3:00pm in the semi-finals at Kigali Regional stadium, Nyamirambo to see who will be heading for the finals.
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