{"id":8072,"date":"2024-10-12T10:56:28","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T10:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/?p=8072"},"modified":"2024-10-12T10:58:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T10:58:22","slug":"afcon-qualifiers-uganda-cranes-defeats-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/2024\/10\/12\/afcon-qualifiers-uganda-cranes-defeats-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Afcon Qualifiers: Uganda Cranes Defeats South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By URN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Uganda Cranes secured their second victory in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers with a 1-0 win over South Sudan at the Mandela National Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n

Defender Bevis Mugabi’s early second-half goal was enough to earn the Cranes all three points in front of a packed crowd.<\/p>\n

The win helped the cranes to get the first advantage of this double header fixture before heading to Juba for the return leg on October 15.<\/p>\n

Uganda Crane’s player Rogers Mato had earlier made it clear that they \u00a0are eyeing not just a win at home but also another maximum result away.\u00a0The win moves Uganda to seven points, same points with South Africa.<\/p>\n

The first half of the match saw little action, as both teams struggled to create significant goal-scoring opportunities. Uganda\u2019s Rogers Mato had a few attempts, but his efforts went off-target, leaving the teams deadlocked at 0-0 by halftime.<\/p>\n

Uganda made key tactical adjustments at the start of the second half, with Allan Okello and Bobosi Byaruhanga coming on to replace Travis Mutyaba and SC Villa’s Ronald Sekiganda.<\/p>\n

The changes reshaped Uganda’s attack, with Jude Ssemugabi moving to center forward and Denis Omedi shifting to the right wing, while Okello took up the role of playmaker.<\/p>\n

These changes paid off almost immediately. In the first minute of the second half, Mugabi capitalized on a rebound from Ssemugabi’s header, which had been saved by the South Sudanese goalkeeper, to nod the ball into the net, giving Uganda the lead.<\/p>\n

Ssemugabi nearly doubled Uganda’s advantage in the 58th minute, but his shot was blocked by the South Sudan goalkeeper. In stoppage time, Omedi also had a chance to extend the lead, but his shot from the right wing was saved as well.<\/p>\n

In his post-match remarks, South Sudan’s coach praised his team’s fighting spirit, despite the defeat.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Uganda’s coach Put expressed dissatisfaction with the first-half performance, citing the team\u2019s late arrival at the stadium as a potential cause.\u00a0However, he was pleased with their improvement in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed in the 45 minutes with the way we played, I can\u2019t tell, I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s because we came late to the pitch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second half there was much drive, commitment and played better. Now we have to put our focus on the return leg,\u201d the \u00a0return leg will be a tough one and I have already told the players, because even the field might be smaller than this,\u201d he added<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By URN Uganda Cranes secured their second victory in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers with a 1-0 win over South Sudan at the Mandela National Stadium on Friday. Defender Bevis Mugabi’s early second-half goal was enough to earn the Cranes all three points in front of a packed crowd. The win helped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8075,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8072\/revisions\/8075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}