APR coach wants to end season on high

After leading APR FC to their 13th Primus league title in 17 seasons, coach Ernie Brandts has now set focus on winning the MTN Peace Cup and Kagame Cup titles to seal off the season with a treble.

Monday, May 21, 2012
THANK YOU: Ernie Brandts is carried in the air by APR players as they celebrate winning their 13th league title on Friday. The New Times / T. Kisambira.

After leading APR FC to their 13th Primus league title in 17 seasons, coach Ernie Brandts has now set focus on winning the MTN Peace Cup and Kagame Cup titles to seal off the season with a treble.The former Dutch international told Times Sport that it is very important for the military side to sweep all trophies to make up for a poor outing in the CAF Champions League yet again."After sealing the league title that will grant us passage to compete in next year’s Africa Champions League, we are now turning our focus on winning the Peace and Kagame Cup trophies,” he noted after winning his second league title in as many seasons.He added, "We have a chance of completing a treble because we have picked form at the right time and we want to take this momentum into the remainder of the season.”APR, who are also the Peace Cup defending champions take on SEC Academy in the quarter finals of the competition, which start after the national team engagements in the 2014 Fifa World Cup and 2013 African Nations Cup qualifiers next month.In the other quarterfinal fixtures Police face Marines; Mukura host AS Kigali and Kiyovu will square off against Rayon Sports.Strong messageAbout the Kagame Cup, Brandts stated that APR needs to win the tournament to send a strong message to rest of the region and beyond for the coming season."It is a tough competition but which we will be out to win. A club of our status should be winning this competition more regularly, and we believe we can do it this year.”Despite winning the 13th league title, Brandts conceded that the military side never played their best football this season."We are delighted that we in the end managed to win the league title despite not playing to our best throughout the season."We conceded far too many easy goals, and had it not been for our own good strike-force which outscored our opponents, we could have been in a serious trouble."None the less, it was a very exciting season, with lots of twists and turns. There are no more pushovers in the league, every team wants to win,” admitted the 1978 Fifa World Cup finalist.