Ex- Cranes player Mugisha now in charge of Amavubi

May 26, 2015

Rwanda national team coach Johnny McKinstry will not be in charge of the young Amavubi when they meet Uganda Kobs in the return leg of the 2016 Africa Olympic qualifier on Saturday.

By Swalley Kenyi

Rwanda national team coach Johnny McKinstry will not be in charge of the young Amavubi when they meet Uganda Kobs in the return leg of the 2016 Africa Olympic qualifier on Saturday.

McKinstry has returned home to Ireland to process his UEFA Pro License as was agreed between him and Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA) in March.

But National football team coach Micho Sredejovic will have to do more ground to counter Ugandan bred Rwandan coach Vincent Mashami, who will take charge of the young Amavubi’s second round return leg match in Kampala.

Mashami, who grew up in the eastern Uganda town of Jinja and former Uganda Cranes players, Ibrahim Mugisha will be in charge of the return leg at Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium.

“Let me tell you, I’m closure to Mashami than McKinstry and I know that he understands Ugandan football as well as the Rwandan players more than McKinstry. That can be dangerous. I’m going to do my part and in this case forget about my friendship with Mashami,” Micho said.

The Uganda Kobs (U-23) football team resumes training camp in Lubowa on Tuesday in preparation for the match on Saturday.

Micho expects to beef up the squad with more professional players by Thursday but insisted that he can only confirm when the players arrive. Only Richard Kasaga is here and is expected to join training this morning.

“I believe that when it is good don’t fly and when it is bad you don’t give up. We shall do anything possible to ensure that we advance to the last round qualifying round. Expect a very good game on Saturday,” Micho added.

McKinstry said, “I have full confidence in Vincent Mashami to oversee the team because he understands what we want to achieve going into the return leg” before he left immediately after the first leg at Amahoro last Saturday.

But McKintry left, he insisted that if they must win the return leg, the Rwanda team needs to press for entire period of the match and not only 25minutes like they did last Saturday.

The winner between Uganda and Rwanda will face Egypt in the last round of qualifiers for the Africa U-23 Championship, due in December 5-19 in Senegal. Out of eight teams, the top three sides at this Championship will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.