STANBIC UGANDA CUP
The Date: June 12, 2022
The Contest: Vipers SC v BUL FC
The Time: 3pm
The Venue: King George Stadium, Masindi
Vipers Sports Club will seek to win a first League and Cup double when they meet Bul FC in the final of the latter competition at Masindi Municipal Stadium on Sunday.
This is a second successive Stanbic Uganda Cup final meeting between the two. The Venoms beat Bul 8-1 to clinch the trophy at the Fufa Technical Centre in Njeru last season.
The sides have since clashed twice in the recently concluded Uganda Premier League with coach Roberto Oliviera’s side drawing the first leg 1-all at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende and winning 3-0 away at the Kyabazinga ground.
Striker Cesar Manzoki is fully back and will be involved tomorrow having featured for Central African Republic in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Angola and Ghana last week.
“I don’t think it will be the same as last year. I congratulate coach Alex Isabirye for reaching back to back finals. It’s not going to be an easy final according to the environment, Stadium and I expect a tough match which we will hopefully win. said goalkeeping coach Ibrahim Mugisha who addressed the media at Fufa House, Mengo.
“We would love to go in history of winning the double and we are working hard with the players so as to reach the fate.”
Vipers’ first loss to the BIDCO Uganda Limited-sponsored team was back in the 2013/14 Uganda Premier League season when the cooking oil manufacturers defeated us 2-1 at Kakindu Stadium.
But aside another solitary loss (a 1-0 defeat in the 2015/16 season) and a handful of draws, Vipers have built a reputation of dominating encounters between the two sides.
Road to the final
Enroute to our second successive final, we started off our Cup defence by eliminating Kigezi HomeBoys FC 1-0 in the Round of 64, courtesy of Yunus Sentamu’s lone goal.
In the Round of 32, Roberto Oliveira’s charges ejected Kalongo United 3-1 through Milton Karisa, Najib Yiga, and Sentamu.
Kataka FC were out next opponent in the Round of 16 and Paul Mucureezi, Allan Kayiwa and Sentamu eased the job in a 3-0 victory at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende.
We saw off Wakiso Giants FC in the quarter-finals 3-1 thanks to a brace from Sentamu and another by Bobosi Byaruhanga.
And in the semi-finals, we were drawn against Mbarara City FC for the two-legged tie in which we won 6-1 on aggregate to make it to the finals.
Team News:
Manzoki is back after recovering from a head injury he picked in our last second leg Stanbic Uganda Cup game against Mbarara City FC.
Hilary Mukundane is cap tied after featuring for his former side Mbarara City FC in the round of 64 of the Stanbic Uganda Cup.
Apart from the longer term injuries, they are all in. No Ibrahim Orit, No Fabien Mutombora – the rest are available. A big squad of 18 players are available to face BUL FC.
Copyright 2022 Vipers Sports Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.viperssc.co.ug as the source.
Can’t wait