APR’s Ndanda calls for improvement

By virtue of being APR’s second longest serving player, Aime Ndizeye or Ndanda to most local fans knows exactly what he’s talking about when he says the team needs to improve sooner rather than later. The ex-Burundi international goalkeeper arrived at APR in 1999, the same year as Rwandan international defender Elias Ntaganda. Both players have been through the club’s good and bad times, the highs and the lows as well as its successes and failures over the years. In nearly a decade at the club, Ndanda and Ntaganda have won seven league titles, six Amahoro Cups, two Cecafa club championships and were part of the team that reached the third round of the Africa Champions League in 2004 under Jean Mare Ntagwabira. And having been there, seen it, done it and still yearning for more, Ndanda sees a bright future for APR but still admits there is too much room for improvement. “We have a good team but the problem is that most of the players are still young with little experience to challenge for every piece of silverware the way it used to be a few years back,” the vastly experienced shot-stopper told Times Sport recently. At age 29, Ndanda has seen different keepers come to take his number one jersey but end up leaving without much success, and now with him entering his tenth year at the club, he is becoming hungrier for more success. After finishing another full 90 minutes in the APR goal against Egyptian side Haras El Hadoud in the Caf Confederations Cup second round last weekend, which ended goalless, the former Burundi international rates his team’s chances of winning in Cairo as ‘50-50’. He said, “They (El Hadoud) play a very tactical game, they’re bigger, stronger and above all that, they’re more experienced than us but that doesn’t mean we can’t go to their place and win.” “None the less, we need to improve before going for the return leg. Here (Kigali), we were playing at home but at the end of the game, most of our players were too tired to walk home because they made us work a lot,” he acknowledged. About the local league race and APR’s chances of reclaiming it from rivals Atraco, he said, “That is one we must win and I’m confident we will, although we’re very much aware of what Atraco and Rayon Sport are capable of.” Asked to compare the current APR squad to the ones that have been built and destroyed in the last nine years, he said, “I think the team of 2004 is the best I’ve ever played in, and may be the one of 2007.” Ends

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APR’s Ndanda calls for improvement