Wakiso Giants versus KCCA tops bill as league resumes 

The second round of the 2022/23 Uganda Premier League (UPL) season begins tomorrow with much anticipation, following six weeks of recess.

Peak of match-day 15 will be the clash at the Kabaka Kyabaggu stadium, where Wakiso Giants hosts KCCA FC. For many neutrals, Wakiso were the team of the first round because of their style of play. Their much-publicized expressive, pass and move tiki-taka was one to behold, because of how much it stood out from the rest of the league.

Midfielder Ibrahim Kasule was instrumental in the way Wakiso played, and was without much debate the best player in the UPL. However, Kasule recently left Wakiso for FC Ankara Keçiörengücü in Turkey. It is hard to see how Wakiso do not feel the pinch of Kasule’s departure considering how their first round display suggested they were in with a title shout.

Of the 21 goals scored in the first round by Wakiso, Kasule was involved in 11 of them, either as a scorer or an assist maker.

“It is true that you do not just wake up and replace a player with Kasule’s qualities; speed, dribbling and imagination. But we have 28 player licences. We have to find someone to play there,” John Luyinda, the Wakiso coach, said.

Youthful Marvin Mukiibi, a product from St Mary’s SS Kitende, is expected to be unleashed in the second round; hopefully against KCCA, Luyinda said with a hearty laugh. In the reverse fixture, Wakiso lost 2-3 to KCCA, in what was a game littered with individual errors defensively.

Luyinda hopes they can show improvement, when they meet again. With four wins, two draws and a loss in their seven home games in the first round, where they conceded 15 goals in 14 ties, defensively, Luyinda concurs, they have work to do. Of those goals, nine were from set-pieces.

Wakiso has added experienced Paul Willa, to beef up. But Luyinda also insisted that the know-how of Tom Masiko and Rahmat Senfuka should keep them in good stead.

Three of Wakiso’s players; Titus Sematimba, Apollo Kagogwe and Ronald Madoi, are on the U-20 national team preparing for the Africa Championship in Egypt later this month. They may miss three second round games.