Semi-final spot at stake as APR face Al Khartoum

Quarter-finals Today APR vs Al Khartoum 12:45pm Gor Mahia vs Malakia 3pm APR coach Dusan Dule Suljagic will field his strongest team against Al Khartoum in today’s first quarter-final clash at the 2015 CECAFA Kagame Cup at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Knowing his team had already booked their place in the last eight, Dusan rested seven starters in the last Group B game against Burundian champions Lydia Ludic Academy five days ago and still APR won 2-1, despite coming from a goal down. It was the third successive win for the Rwandan champions, who have a very good record in this regional tournament sponsored by President Paul Kagame. They have won it three times--in 2003, 2007 and 2010; plus, they reached and lost the final of the last two editions. APR’s three titles were all won when the tournament was hosted in Kigali, with the exception of reaching the final in 2013 in Darfur, Sudan where they lost 3-1 to Vital’O of Burundi. Last year in Kigali, the army side lost in the final 1-0 against Sudanese giants El Merreikh. However, Serbian Dusan, who is playing in his first Kagame Cup as APR’s head coach, will recall his big guns including captain Ismail Nshutiyamagara, Jean Claude Iranzi, Yannick Mukunzi, Michel Ndahinduka, while left-back Albert Ngabo and midfielder Djihad Bizimana return to the side after missing the LLB game through suspension. While APR have had nearly five days of rest, today’s game is the third for Al Khartoum in the same period--following two big Group A matches against Gor Mahia on Friday and Yanga on Sunday from which they picked just one point, the 1-1 draw with Gor. But assistant coach Vincent Mashami thinks the 4 days rest for APR and Al Khartoum playing two games in three days is both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time for both teams. “For Al Khartoum, it is an advantage because they have been kept in competition mood but it also brings fatigue, and for us, we’ve had enough time to rest and all players who had slight knocks are back to full fitness,” Mashami told Times Sports after yesterday’s morning training session in Karume. About facing a good-passing Al Khartoum side, he noted, “They are such a good team, with an experienced coach and they play a physical game at a high tempo, but we’re APR and we know what have to do to reach the semi-final.” Al Khartoum are handled by former Ghana coach James Kwesi Appiah and are playing in the Kagame Cup for the first time.