Uganda Sand Cranes coach Haruna Kebba has said that he was blessed to watch the Ghana national beach soccer team – the Black Sharks play before the two countries clash in the AFCON 2015 Beach Soccer qualifiers on Sunday.

Kebba had been struggling to buy videos of the Ghana Black Sharks matches to learn about them. But he watched the Ghanaians lose to Nigeria (2-5), Mozambique (1-2) before the Black Sharks trounced Seychelles 8-2 in their third match at the Beach Soccer African Trophy Durban in South Africa over the weekend.

“I was really very lucky to watch Ghana play before our fixture. Yes they have the physical advantage as big players but we have more resilience and speed than them. In all the three matches they played, they couldn’t keep their pace beyond the second period,” Kebba said.

Building fitness

Kebba has been working on his players’ fitness, pace and techniques since the time they returned from a tour of Kenya and he said yesterday that the residential camp starting today in Entebbe will even give him more time to improve the players’ agility on the beach.

Uganda Beach Soccer Association has moved the international match from Lido Beach to the adjacent Sports Beach because of what they referred to as bigger space and better setting and good relations with the management.

The first legs of the second round are scheduled for this weekend and the return legs for the following weekend across the continent.

The Black Sharks finished second to last overall out of eight African teams after beating Seychelles 8-2 in the seventh place playoff at the Beach Soccer African Trophy in South Africa.