Bonnie Mugabe
24 June 2011
Rwanda U-17 head coach Richard Tardy was satisfied with the performance of the junior wasps’ despite the defeat in Wednesday’s Group C match.
The France born coach was left with a sour taste in the mouth after seeing his team go down to a last minute goal in the 1-0 loss to Uruguay, having dominated the game. It was Rwanda’s second defeat in as many games.
Tardy said, “I am happy with the way they [players] played, they directly played to my instructions and I was impressed with the kind of football they displayed.”
“We keep on improving match by match and I hope that they we’ll play even better when they face Canada in the last group match,” noted a visibly disappointed Tardy.
On the team’s chances of progressing to the next phase, he said, “Our chances of reaching the next round are very minimal but we must win the last match whatsoever and see what happens in other groups.”
The junior wasps experienced first-hand the downside of one of football’s oldest cliches: it’s not over till it’s over. Just as they were preparing to celebrate their first point at this level, a well-placed header from Leonardo Pais in the 95th minute left them empty-handed.
And while not necessarily a statistic that will remain in the memory forever, the strike entered the record books as the third-latest goal in the history of the tournament. It is worth noting that the two that were scored later than this one also managed to secure draws.
Rwanda was also to blame after failing to utilize plenty of chances in both halves after commanding the midfield competently, Andrew Buteera, Bon Fils Kabanda, Mwesigye Charles and skipper Emery Bayisenge were culprits in the failing to converting a handful of chances.
Uruguay tops Group C with six points, England is second on four, and Canada is third with one while Rwanda is placed bottom pointless.
Today
Group A
Korea DPR vs Congo
Mexico vs Netherlands
Group B
Japan vs Argentina
Jamaica vs France
AllAfrica – All the Time
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Tardy Happy Despite Defeat