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Soccer News of Thursday, 22 August 2002

Source: The East African Standard (Nairobi)

Nakivubo to Host Cranes, Ghana Duel

Federation of Uganda Football Association (Fufa) has picked Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium for Cranes Africa Cup of Nations opener against Ghana.

According to Uganda's leading daily The New Vision, Fufa secretary, Haruna Mawanda, said they had decided to have the match at Nakivubo because "our players feel more comfortable there."

Interestingly, Cranes' last game in the Nations Cup 2002 qualifier played at the same venue saw the home side fall 3-0 to Togo.

This time round, Togo are pooled in the same group with Kenya and play in Nairobi on September 7.

Ghana's Black Stars are currently in Turkey gearing up for the match. The Black Stars under Yugoslav coach Millan Zivadinovic, plan to have a series of friendly matches before flying back to Accra and then connect to Kampala.

The four time Africa champions have recalled six foreign based players for the September 7 crucial game.

The professionals in the team are Stephen Appiah (Bresciam, Italy), Derek Boateng (Panath-inaikos, Greece), John Mensah (Chievo, Italy), Michael Essien (Bastia, Italy), Otto Addo (Germany) and Razak Ibrahim, who features for French second division side St Ettiene.