Uganda’s Lady Doves held Tanzania’s Simba Queens to a barren draw at Kasarani Stadium to remain top and leave qualification from the group open to three teams.Simba’s coach Ali Omar had made two changes to the team that started against PVP while his counterpart Fred Musiime made only one change.Zubeda Mgunda and Clement Mkumbuke replaced Janneth Simba and Asha Djafari for Simba while Nakitto Nabirah started ahead of Nagadya Jowelia for Lady Doves.The game was an evenly balanced one in the first half, with both teams displaying brilliant and flowing football.Mkumbuke had a couple of chances that would have seen Simba lead at least 3-0 into the break had she taken them.On resumption, Simba came with the intent of grabbing the win to topple Lady Doves off the summit and be assured of a place in the semi final.They stringed a couple of attacks in the initial minutes of the second half but the custodian Daisy Nakaziro continued her first hal exploits to keep the scores level.Fazila Ikwaput, fresh from scoring a brace in their first game was always on the move, and almost grabbed the opener in the second half but the vocal Zubeda stood firm to deny her.Lady Doves were reduced to 10 players with 15 minutes left on the clock after Sarah Nakuya was shown two yellow cards in quick succession, the first one for refusing to board the stretcher and the second one for not leaving the field of play after treatment.Speedy Norah Alupo almost scored the opener from long range after latching to a lose ball from Simba’s defenders.With one player less and with the game still in deadlock, Lady Doves coach brought in midfielder Harima Kanyago and Gloria Namugerwa, a midfielder and a defender, for two forwards in Norah and Spencer Nakacwa in an attempt to atleast hang to a point.Simba kept knocking but Lady Doves remained disciplined defensively, and did their defensive duties perfectly.The draw leaves Lady Doves at the top of the group with four points while Simba remain second with same points albeit an inferior goal difference.”We do not have an excuse having had everyone available, we did not have luck. We came with a tactic that Lady Doves unearthed and we had to change our approach. The Lady Doves goalkeeper was super in goal,” Omar of Simba Queens lamented His counterpart from Uganda seemed content with the point. “I deserved the one point. I played a very experienced side. However we missed a couple of chances that we should have converted. Also the ladies did their best after they went a player down,” Musiime said.
