Seldom can a team have prepared so thoroughly for a tournament, and still got it hopelessly wrong.
That was the case with Rwanda’s senior national football team Amavubi, following their quarter-final exit at this year’s Cecafa Tusker Senior Challenge Cup which climaxed on Saturday in Kampala, Uganda.
After crafting out wins against Eritrea and guest side Malawi and unexpectedly losing to Zanzibar at the group stage, the Wasps had done enough to top their group (C) and clearly fancied their chances against a Tanzanian side that heavily relied on the prowess of Simba’s Mrisho Ngassa and John Bocco, who has become a household name in the Tanzania Vodacom premier league with Azam.
And it was the latter that put the game beyond Rwanda’s reach after making the most of an error by goalkeeper Jean Claude Ndoli’s to double Tanzania’s lead eight minutes into the second half. Amri Kiemba had given the Tanzanians the lead mid-way through the first half after a string of clever passes between Kilimanjaro Stars midfielder Mwinyi Kazimoto and Ngassa.
Rwanda created chances of their own but could not convert; something which has dogged Amavubi for the past twelve months. “We were not clinical in front of goal and paid the price for it,” a disappointed Amavubi coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojovic, said.
“Missing key players like Olivier Karekezi, Meddie Kagere and Mbuyu Twite, who helped the team reach the final last year, also dented the team’s title chances this time round but overall, it was a good opportunity for the likes of Jimmy Mbaraga and Imran Nshimiyimana to stake their claim in the team,” the Serbian added.
This was also a big blow to the Amavubi captain Haruna Niyonzima on a personal level, because the Yanga winger came into the tournament believing that this was the ideal time to get that second Cecafa title under his belt.
“There’s nothing I can say right now that’ll make the fans feel better,” he said despondently. “We had a number of opportunities to score but just could not find the net. It’s kind of disbelief really. I thought we certainly had what it took to be able to win against Tanzania, unfortunately we didn’t.”
The former APR player insisted that the team had prepared well for the tournament and put their heart and soul into the quarter-final match, but the Kilimanjaro Stars were just too good for them. Yet he admitted that there was no excuse Amavubi could present to the home fans, and they bear all the responsibility of the defeat.