Preview: Ghana-Uganda

KAMPALA - If you asked Ghanaians one East African team they do not cherish playing, chances are that the answer will be Uganda. Ghana has not beaten Uganda in recent years and coach Mike Mutebi, his squad and a strong Namboole crowd, can bank on those memories against the Black Stars.

Such is the intensity of the match that President Yoweri Museveni paid an emergence to the visit camp yesterday to show his support for Cranes. Ghana is a familiar opponent for Uganda and likewise, Cranes are not new to a challenge posed by the Black Stars.

The experienced legion of Timothy Batabaire, Nestory Kizito, Hassan Mubiru and Philip Ssozi featured prominently in September 2002 when Philip Obwiny's sole strike won the day for Cranes.

For Ghana, key players Sammy Adjei, Sulley Muntari, Stephen Appiah, Charles Taylor and Augustine Ahinful are some of the adversaries who made it in Kampala to lose painfully.

Cranes is in a must-win situation, and because the group is fast becoming a tight affair, Ghana too is logically strategising for maximum points.

Uganda?s penchant for taming West African opposition at home makes Cranes marginal favourites. Midfielder Jamil Kyambadde, once loved and loathed, for his inventive industry, could play his first game for Uganda in three years. He last featured in 2001 under coach Harrison Okagbue.