It is high time for APR to roll up their sleeves in CAF Champions League

The reigning local champions will meet Mbabane Swallows of Swaziland on Saturday in their CAF Club Champions League preliminary round, return leg match at Kigali Regional Stadium. Fresh from 2-0 victory against Espoir FC on Tuesday, which placed them back in the top four of the Rwanda Premier League table, coach Emmanuel Rubano and his players has to roll up their sleeves when it comes to the Champions League, a competition they have never reached the group stages. Without any doubt coach Rubona may win the return leg given the home advantage but the concern is how far they can go in the continent’s biggest and most prestigious club competition? While watching one of their training sessions two days before the clash with Mbabane, coach Rubona cast a watchful eye over his squad as they ran through drills at FERWAFA artificial ground in Remera. “We are 100 % sure that we shall win the game, they are not a strong team. We have a home advantage and if you recall not such clubs can come here and walk away with all three points,” Rubona explained in an interview. Left winger, Eric Rutanga also believes the army side stands a chance, “Considering our performance in second half in Swaziland, they (Mbabane Swallows) are not physically ready to play full 90 minutes, after the half, we dominated because but we were unlucky not to score.” The military side will need to value their chance to reach far in this year’s CAF Champions League where they are making their 13th appearance since 1997. However, on only previous appearances, the military side has dropped out of the competition either in the preliminary and first round except in 2004 when they reached the third round but lost to Ivorian African Sports National on penalties. Over the past three years, I don’t think the army side has mentally prepared in such games. Last year, the army side narrowly lost away from home, but went ahead to oust Liga Desportiva on 2-1 aggregate in the preliminary round. In the first round, they played their way and assumed it will bring them out on top; only to crumble to 4-0 to Egypt’s Al Ahly, a sense of naivety, which suggests an element of inconsistency in performance. Playing your way is never enough, besides such huge games are won by the thought preparations and process. This needs to be addressed if they are to really push far. Mbabane Swallows, despite being initiated in 1948 have made only five appearances in this tournament and on all five occasions, they have been eliminated in the preliminary round. Rubona and his outfit have set the target in the continental games, but first they must get the hurdle out of the way to set up a first round meeting with either Young Africans of Tanzania or Cercle Joachim of Mauritius. Already, Yanga hold a slender 1-0 away win from the first leg. Conceding mindless goals like the one away in Swaziland can easily be avoidable; such goals come around as a result of gaps in concentration, something that Rubona, a rookie coach at this level, needs to address if his team is have a chance of progressing beyond the next stage. Rubona lacks the required experience when it comes to playing in the CAF Champions League but his assistant Didier Bizimana is well vast with competition, having been part of the APR team that reached the third qualification round in 2004. editorial@newtimes.co.rw