Friendly Matches
Vurra 0-5 Onduparaka
Onduparaka 0-3 Azam
Masindi Select 1-1 Onduparaka
Kitara F.C 2-2 Onduparaka
With three weeks to the start of the 2017/2018 Azam Uganda Premier League, topflight league clubs are well into their preseason training. Betway sponsored Arua club Onduparaka are no exception and showed as much as they picked up their biggest pre-season result with a 5-0 hammering of Big League side Vurra.
Much has been said about youngster Ezra Bida who joined from Koboko Rising Stars.The striker showed why he attracted plenty of headlines when he was summoned to the national Under-17 team as a 14-year-old three years ago. Despite coming off the bench late in the game, the youngster made a strong case for the man of the match award in a 15 minute cameo by scoring and creating another, including several eye-catching dribbles.
Forward Kabon Living dazzled too with his speed proving too much for the Vurra Fc backline, as he opened the score in the first half. Skillful forward Agau Rashid who last scored using his head in the Big League against Boma young in 2015, also registered his name on the score sheet by getting to the end of Denis Andama’s pin point cross from the right. Veteran Caesar Okhuti scored a brace too with his last goal being a 25-yard thunderbolt in a game that attracted one of the biggest crowds ever at the ground.
Captain Rashis Toha got a rousing welcome while star striker Muhammad Shaban missed the game after suffering a knee injury while playing for the national team Cranes against Rwanda at St. Mary’s Stadium. The result helped the caterpillars return to winning ways having lost their previous game 3-0 to visiting Tanzanian side Azam FC. The Livingstone Mbabazi coached side also played twice on the tour to the Kitara Region drawing 1-all with Masindi Select as well as picking up a 2-2 stalemate with Kitara FC.