Africa-Press – Uganda. Uganda national Women U-20 team will have a chance to play five competitive matches as they prepare for their December fixture against South Africa in the third round of the 2022 U-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
The team will host the inaugural Cecafa Women U-20 championship at the Fufa Technical Centre in Njeru starting this Saturday, October 30 and run for eleven days up to November 9.
This maiden edition will only feature half of the dozen member associations in the region. They include hosts Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi, Djibouti and Eritrea.
Due to the fact that half of the members shunned the tournament, the Cecafa organizing committee decided that the available teams will play a round-robin format with each team playing five games.
World Cup preps
The Director of Competitions at Cecafa Yusuf Mossi believes the format will help teams that are still contesting for a place in next year’s Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup to get better preparations ahead of the third round of qualifiers.
“Playing [the tournament] on a round-robin basis will help the teams play as many matches as possible,” Mossi said. “It will also help the teams that are still playing in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.” Tanzania, Ethiopia and Burundi are the other nations besides Uganda still in the World Cup games.
Uganda’s head coach Ayub Khalifa has maintained the core of the team that recently brushed aside Kenya in the second round of the global qualifiers for the regional championships. He, too, looks up to the tournament to build momentum for the South Africa tie in December.
“Our target going into the Championship is to win it because that will give us momentum as we prepare to face South Africa,” Khalifa said.
Six of the members summoned in Khalifa’s team are currently with the Uganda Crested Cranes team that faced Ethiopia yesterday in an Awcon qualifier. They include Sumaya Komuntale, Asia Nakibuuka, Magret Kunihira, Fauzia Najjemba, and Shamirah Nalugya. Star striker Juliet Nalukenge has been called for Cecafa though she remains a doubt due to club duties.
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