Amavubi head coach Johnny McKinstry is a lucky man—for he takes over a quite healthy-looking team, which if, it keeps improving at the current rate, has potential to upset the big cats at next year’s Africa Nations Championships (Chan) on home soil.

To start with, the circumstances that led to McKinstry taking over the job, are, or were totally different from when most of his predecessors came in the hot seat, and that is already advantage enough for him even before he gets started.

The 29-year old Northern Irishman, McKinstry becomes not only one of the youngest international head coach in world football, but also takes over one of the youngest national teams, in terms of average age, on the continent.

McKinstry, who, between April 2013 and September 2014, worked as Sierra Leone national team care-taker coach, replaces Englishman Stephen Constantine, who resigned after just eight months in charge to take over India national team in January.

The conditions under which he was appointed by the Sierra Leone FA are more or less similar to when he comes to Rwanda—in Sierra Leone, he also took over following the resignation of Swedish coach Lars-Olof Mattsson.

However, failure to guide the West African team to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals tournament held in Equatorial Guinea cost him the job on a permanent contract, and it was back to the drawing board for the rookie coach, whose managerial record read; played 8, won 3, drawn 3 and lost 2.

These statistics represent 37.50 winning percentage, which is not a very bad return for a man just making his breakthrough in the demanding business of international football.

With Sierra Leone, you could say, McKinstry’s chances to succeed were affected, to what degree, we will never know, by the fact that the team had to play their ‘home’ qualifiers on neutral grounds due to the outbreak of Ebola in their country.

Goal-shy Amavubi 

McKinstry makes his debut in the Amavubi dugout on Sunday (today) against Zambia in a high-bill international friendly in Lusaka just seven days of taking the job.

Against the 2012 African champions, he and Amavubi have a good opportunity to gauge themselves against one of the top teams on the continent as the team prepares for the 2016 Chan, a tournament they should be targeting to at least to reach the semi-finals—why not dream!

Unlike his predecessors, McKinstry takes over a team that is unbeaten in 9 matches including four wins, four draws and just a single defeat—conceding only three times, twice against Congo Brazzaville and once against Tanzania.

Confidence-wise, the new coach wouldn’t have asked for a better timing to take over though he has a huge job on his hands to ‘teach’ his strikers how to put the ball in the back of the opposition net more regularly. 

In the last nine internationals, Amavubi have scored eight six goals—three of them in one match against Libya, two against Gabon over two games, two against Congo Brazzaville plus one against Tanzania, but a lot of water has passed under the bridge since the team last netted more than once in a match.

One particular stat that should worry McKinstry though, is that out of the eight goals, three were scored by Dady Birori and another three by Meddi Kagere—two players who are no longer with the team because they were both naturalized Rwandans. 

Michel Ndahinduka (against Congo) and Jean Baptiste Mugiraneza (against Tanzania) scored the other two goals.

And now with APR striker Ndahinduka dropped from the team for Sunday’s game, it leaves the coach with only one player in the whole squad with an international goal on his name in the previous 9 matches!

Over the years, Amavubi’s key problem has been scoring enough goals, something that every new coach pin-points as his priority task yet so few have been able to find a solution to.

Whether McKinstry can solve that problem before next year’s Chan tournament, only time will tell but the one thing we all need to afford him is our full support so that he can bring the best out this relatively young lot.

If he can start making them create and score more, Rwanda as hosts, has not only potential but a good chance to stand their ground against any opposition in a competition reserved for only players playing in their respective domestic leagues. 

However, problem for Amavubi is that they have, for so long, flattered to deceive, a feat that has left their fans disappointed more often than normal which is why McKinstry needs to seize this opportunity to put his name among Rwandan football folklore and also on the market for ‘bigger’ offers.