CECAFA Cup Final: Tanzania 1 Ivory Coast 0; 3rd Place: Ethiopia 3 Uganda 4

4-Goals Hero Oumed Oukri

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – Host Tanzania clinched the CECAFA Challenge Cup by beating the Ivory Coast 1-0 from a first-half penalty kick. Earlier in the day, Uganda won the 3rd place battle with Ethiopia in a match that was both thrilling (7 goals scored) and also error-prone as some of the goals were the direct results of goalkeeping and defensive lapses.

This is the second encounter for the two teams who first met in the Group C opener on November 30, where Uganda came from behind to beat the Ethiopian team 2-1.

The Ethiopian team, which has received great admiration and adulation from fans and the media because of the players’ great ball skills and beautiful short passes, was once again punished for silly goalkeeper mistake, defensive laps, poor physical condition and lack of stamina, cost the team a 3rd place finish.

Meanwhile, host Tanzania beat the Ivory Coast 1-0 from penalty to win the CECAFA Cup.

Oumed Oukri’s Double

The half-time score was Ethiopia 2 and Uganda 1, with both goals coming from Oumed Oukri, and bringing his tournament’s tally to 4 goals. Tesfaye Alebachew scored Ethiopia’s 3rd goal.

Ethiopia started well with Oumed scoring his first goal after beating a Ugandan offside trap. Unfortunately, Ethiopia’s goalkeeper Binyam Habtamu’s error gifted Uganda with an easy chance to tie the game.

Soon after , Oumed got his second goal after receiving Shimelis Bekele’s through pass. Shimelis did a wonderful job drawing the Ugandan defenders towards him and passing the ball to the unmarked Oumed to score.

However, Ethiopia’s lead was short-lived as Uganda scored two goals within 10 minutes of the second half to go on top 3-2. The second goal was a beautiful volley, which deserves to be named one of the best goals of the tournament.

Ethiopia fought back and their efforts paid off with an equalizer from a beautiful header by Tesfaye Alebachew. But another defensive mistake helped Uganda to score the winner.

Despite great display and courage, our players were tired in the end and couldn’t get the equalizer.

Lesson

Our team has gone far beyond most of us expected it to go. Our players showed great ball skills and displayed beautiful football, winning along the way lots of hearts in Africa and elsewhere. On the flip side, there is a lesson for our players and coaches to take from this tournament – that technical ability and beautiful display will not be enough to win games, specially against tough opponents like Nigeria, as our players need to be physically strong and have the stamina to play the entire 90 minutes.

Our coaches have a big task ahead of them as they need to improve the tactical lapses in the defense and the easily avoidable mistakes that our goalies made during in this tournament.