Vipers now look safe bet for domestic league and Cup triumph

Vipers fans have elevated their expectations after last Saturday’s epic 1-0 victory over KCCA that put them in the driver’s seat for the 2023 StarTimes Uganda Premier League title.

With SC Villa running out of momentum on the home straight and KCCA blowing hot and cold, the Venoms have now been installed as the overwhelming favourites to defend their league championship.

Before last evening’s trip to Bright Stars, Alex Isabirye’s side had five games left to play, which was two more than SC Villa and one more than KCCA. That meant that by presstime they required just 13 points to be declared champions. The most points KCCA, currently at 45, can get in the league is 57.

The most leaders Villa can get is 55. The Jogoos are on 46 points. If Vipers drew one game and won all their remaining games, they would reach an unassailable 58 points.

No doubt there will probably be some shocks and upsets but right now as things stand, every contender would love to be in the position of Vipers. On Friday (May 12), Vipers have a tricky trip to Arua where they will visit Onduparaka.

It won’t be an easy match against the Caterpil- lars who showed their giant-killing credentials by holding KCCA at the MTN Omondi stadium recently.

Meanwhile, BUL who stunned Vipers in last season’s Uganda Cup final – in so doing denying them what would have been their first-ever League and Cup double – are a team with the capacity of frustrating Vipers. BUL are due to host former coach Alex Isabirye’s Vipers in the last week of the month.

This Saturday (May 13), KCCA travel to Wankuluku to play Express FC in another unpredictable match while SC Villa will want to maintain their title dream by picking maximum points at home in a re-scheduled encounter against Blacks Power.
It is clear that there is still a lot of football to play and a lot of drama to come.

Last evening’s Bright Stars- Vipers clash was a dress rehearsal of the Stanbic Bank Uganda Cup all-UPL semi-final. Dr Lawrence Mulindwa has never hidden his desire to win the double, and Vipers will in all likelihood have one arm on the double if they can negotiate their way past Asaph Mwebaze’s plucky side.

The semi-finals of the Uganda Cup are played on a home and away basis and either side will be keen on drawing first blood. Vipers will play the first leg at St Mary’s stadium on May 20 and, as such, kick-off as marginal favourites against a team famed for raising its game against strong teams.

In the other semi-final, Police and Adjumani will contest an all-Fufa Big League Cup semi-final on May 15. It is a less glamorous semi-final, but Cup football usually tends to offer all kinds of drama and no one can definitively tell how that clash will go.

Vipers, meanwhile, are trying to manage the expectations in their camp well aware that previous pursuits of the double have failed agonizingly in recent seasons.

In 2018, the Venoms travelled to Bukedea to play KCCA in the final. They had won the League and were hoping to emulate SC Villa, Express and the Kasasiro Boys in finally winning the double. But they were stunned by a solitary Julius Poloto goal.

While Isabirye continues to nurse a number of key players, he has guarded against complacency in his ranks well aware that there is as much chance of winning a double as of finishing empty-handed.

Stranger things have happened in the game of football and his task now is to maintain the players grounded and focused. The biggest winners in what has been a thrilling and dramatic ending to the season has been the fans of the UPL who have followed clashes involving matches of SC Villa, KCCA and Vipers very keenly.

If the league race can go to the very final day of the season – and it is a possibility considering that Vipers also have Express to come, we could witness one of the most enthralling final day finishes ever.