Amavubi gear up for CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup

RWANDA national team (Amavubi) are gearing up for the upcoming CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup which is scheduled for December 3-17 in Kenya. The Rwanda team will travel on Friday afternoon ahead of their first game against Kenya. Amavubi head coach Antoine Hey said that they will use the competition to prepare the players for CHAN. “We have agreed that we will use local players in the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, which will help us to prepare the team for CHAN. We chose to maintain the same group which qualified for CHAN but there is still room for others depending on improvement,” Hey said on Sunday in brief press conference. Also featuring in Rwanda’s group at the Cecafa Challenge Cup is Kilimanjaro Stars of Tanzania, the Zanzibar Heroes and guest team the Mediterranean Knights of Libya, who are also preparing for the 2018 CHAN finals in Morocco. After the opening day, Rwanda will next face Zanzibar on December 5; take on Libya on December 7 before concluding the group stage action with a date against Tanzania on December 9. “We are taking the competition seriously and we want good results, but first we are looking at how our players can gain confidence and experience during these games. Our players are young and many of them have been playing in local league and we believe they will gain a lot from playing those competitions,” he added The team will train on Monday morning and afternoon same as Tuesday while on Wednesday and Thursday they will train in the afternoon and Friday morning before traveling to Kenya. The German-born tactician named the squad which is dominated by Peace Cup holders APR FC and league reigning champions Rayon Sports FC. The CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup will be a good test for the Rwandan local players who will be seeking to impress in order to be selected on the final team for CHAN finals. Rwanda will use the regional tournament as part of their preparations for next year’s Africa Nations Championship, which will run from January 12 through February 4. Rwanda won the regional tournament in 1999 after beating 3-1 Kenya in the final at Amahoro National Stadium. Last year, CECAFA failed to stage its two main annual competitions—the Senior Challenge Cup and Kagame Club Championship. editorial@newtimes.co.rw