Teen Cranes Target Winning Start in CECAFA U17 Women’s Championship

Sunday, June 14

Uganda vs Djibouti, 4:00 PM – Azam Complex

The Uganda U17 Women’s National Team, the Teen Cranes, will be aiming for a strong start to their CECAFA U17 Women’s Championship title defence when they face Djibouti on Sunday at the Azam Complex in Tanzania.

Head coach Sheryl Botes and her charges completed their final training session on Saturday at the TRA Playground and are now focused on securing maximum points in their opening Group B fixture.

Uganda enter the tournament as defending champions, having won the competition in 2019 under coach Ayub Khalifah.

As part of their preparations, the Teen Cranes travelled to Ethiopia, where they played a friendly match and played to entertaining 3-3 draw before proceeding to Tanzania earlier this week.

Following their elimination from both the FIFA U17 and FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers, Uganda will be eager to bounce back by successfully defending their regional crown.

“Our girls arrived in Tanzania quite fatigued, but we have focused on recovery. We had a light training session and spent time analysing the mistakes that led to the goals we conceded against Ethiopia,” said Botes.

“We also worked on improving our finishing so that we make better use of the chances we create and avoid making things difficult for ourselves and our fans. We have also focused on understanding transitions better. I am confident that the players will fight hard, and we want to win our first game against Djibouti,” she added.

Uganda have been drawn in Group B alongside Djibouti, Zanzibar and South Sudan.

The top two teams from each group will progress to the semi-finals as they battle for a place in the final and the opportunity to lift the championship trophy.