After Rwanda, Crested Cranes land into lionesses’ den

The Crested Cranes do not return to competitive action until October, when they face Cameroon in the second round of the 2024 Olympics qualifiers.

Essentially, The Crested Cranes have three months to prepare for Cameroon. At this time, when they are probably still reminiscing about the dramatic events in Kigali on the evening of Sunday, July 16, when Fazilah Ikwaput came off the bench to score in the 1-0 second leg victory over Rwanda, the stark reality is that they are literally going to walk into a Lionesses’ den in Cameroon.

It goes without saying that The Crested Cranes have so many things to work on, and improve following their 4-3 aggregate win over Rwanda. As assistant coach Ayub Kiyingi pointed out in his reviews of the team, their de- fending has to be better.

To have conceded three goals against Rwanda is worrying. But much of that was at- tributed to the rust in this team. Since The Crested Cranes participation in the Africa Women’s championship in July last year, the team had not been together for a competitive game.

It is for that reason that in the first leg against Rwanda, they looked out of touch with one another in defence, hence being leaky.

Notably, Cameroon, ranked number 56 in the world, reached the quarterfinals of the Africa Women’s championship last year, conceding twice and scoring thrice in four games. Nigeria, who are ranked number 40, eliminated them following a 1-0 win.

That suggests Cameroon are strong. Considering that Uganda, ranked 161, laboured past Rwanda, ranked 163, clearly have a shift to put in, before entering the den.