KCC's Wasswa sinks De Bafia

It took 84 minutes and a rasping Herman Wasswa left foot half volley to break 10-man Cosmos de Bafia’s resilience as KCC edged the Cameroonians 1-0 in the first leg of the Caf Champions League at Namboole on Saturday.

Coach Abdallah Mubiru’s men, who registered KCC’s first ever continental victory at Namboole on the day, now carry a one-goal advantage and clean sheet to Cameroon in a fortnight looking to try and progress from the preliminaries.

Most of KCC's continental home games in the last decade were played at Nakivubo.

Victory, a draw or a one goal (all-score) margin defeat will see KCC progress to the next round but the Ugandan champions will be wary of the Cameroonians, whose display in Kampala was of a team who have it in them to still progress.

KCC will also have goalkeeper Yasin Mugabi to thank for scraping through the tie with a clean sheet. The hosts could have gone into the break 2-0 down but for Mugabi’s two brilliant close-range stops when Ntjaka Guy Marcel was through to goal.

Wasswa and Tom Masiko also had early opportunities for the hosts in the opening period but wasted their chances.

KCC coach Mubiru introduced striker Paul Mucureezi in place of Hakim Ssenkumba shortly after the break to try and provide further thrust and pace up front.

And then a moment of madness from the visitor’s striker Nai Patrick, who had a few minutes into the second half picked a yellow card for a strong challenge on KCC defender Ronnie Kisekka, was upon us.

The forward was released down the left, cut back into the penalty area - beating his man along the way. But instead of carrying on and beating Mugabi in goal as well, Nai opted to lunge himself onto the ground under no contact forcing the referee to hand him his second yellow – and off on 60 minutes.

KCC were now under pressure to make their numerical advantage count in a game both Mubiru and De Bafia coach Libiih Thomas had exhausted their substitutions.

They did, with six minutes to go. KCC skipper Saaka Mpiira received the ball from the middle and then drifted in a well-weighted cross from the right – just after the half way line – for Mucureezi to brush into Wasswa’s way.

The finish by Wasswa was quite exquisite.