Micho proud despite Angola loss

Amavubi’s head coach Milutin Sredojovic Micho is pleased with the display from the youthful Amavubi team in the weekend’s 0-1 loss against Angola played on Saturday in Luanda.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Amavubi’s head coach Milutin Sredojovic Micho is pleased with the display from the youthful Amavubi team in the weekend’s 0-1 loss against Angola played on Saturday in Luanda.Speaking to Times Sport yesterday, Serbian Micho said the defeat has left a vital lesson to the youthful national team."This was a good platform for the youngstars to gain experience and exposure and even get used to such high profile international matches. I am proud with how the boys played the second half, they dominated possession, created many chances but as usual, finding the net was a problem”"We picked a young squad for the friendly match with an aim of giving them a chance to improve on their career. With nine players under the age of 20, we are probably the team in Africa with the youngest national team but our mission is to build a strong and good team for the future.”"I believe everyone has learnt a lot from this game and keeping in mind that we played against a team which will play in continental championships (Nations Cup), this has helped us to be able to estimate our performances if we happen to qualify for the next Nations’ Cup finals,” added Micho.The Serbian added that the future is bright for Amavubi and the Rwanda’s football will continue to be in the right direction if many of the Amavubi youthful kingpins go out and play professional football as well as availing more friendly matches for the national team.An early Mingo Bile’s strike ended hopes for Amavubi to record an away win despite several goal attempts in the second half.Following 2013 Africa Cup of Nations exit, Micho is trying to make amends by maximising the available resources to establish a solid team with focus on young players, mostly those who took part in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico last year.Ever since Micho took over from Ghanian Sellas Tetteh in early November, last year, he has presided over nine wins, five draws and seven losses in different competitions, including Cecafa Challenge Cup (2011 and 2012), 2014 World Cup qualifiers, 2013 Africa Nations’ Cup qualifiers, as well as international friendly matches.Amavubi will resume on the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in March when they face Mali, Algeria and Benin and CHAN qualifiers later in June.  Rwanda has never qualified for the World Cup finals and are poorly placed in Group H. They sit bottom of the table with one point, three adrift of leaders Benin in two matches played so far.