Coach Mbungo turns focus to league after CAF frustration

After failing to qualify for the next round of the CAF Confederation tournament, Police Football Club Coach Andre Casa Mbungo has now turned focus to the Rwanda Premier League, starting with a game against AS Kigali on Sunday at Kicukiro. The law enforcer’s team was eliminated from the CAF Confederation Cup by Vita Club Mokanda of Congo Brazzaville after 1-0 goal aggregate at Kigali Regional Stadium. Mathias Osagatsama scored the lone goal in the 80th minute to send the Congolese side into the second qualification round. Mbungo who was frustrated with his side’s elimination said, “Focus has now shifted to the league to try and gain maximum points so that we can push ahead to win the title or finish among the top two so that we can feature in the CAF games next year.” “Confederation cup elimination was a disappointment,” when asked why local clubs like Police fail to progress to the next stages, “Casa replied, “It is a general problem, and if I’m to explain, it would take me a whole day, I can write a whole book about it but what I can say is that the challenges are so many.” He noted that he will now have to concentrate on the league in order to win this year’s national league. “I have many injured players and yet we have a game against AS Kigali on Sunday,” Mbungo added but refused to name some his injured players claiming, “Let that be an internal club issue to sort out.” Police FC is fifth on the table, 8 points behind Rayon Sports which tops the log with 32 points. Coach Casa has a battle ahead of him this Sunday when he meets his rival coach Eric Nshimiyimana of AS Kigali with four points in the fourth position. Just two days later (March 5th), they will travel to Rubavu, Stade Umuganda to meet Etincelles FC in a game which is expected to be a walk over. Should Mbungo’s side win both games; they will be level with Rayon Sport on 32 points out of 15 games of the National Premier first round. editorial@newtimes.co.rw