Rayon crack before crucial tie

Today Rayon Sport v Atraco Six-time league winners Rayon Sport go into their crucial league tie against league leaders Atraco as the underdogs, according to interim coach Jean Baptiste Kayiranga. Kayiranga takes charge of his first game as the new head coach against the champions this afternoon at Amahoro stadium hoping for a win that put pressure on the front two. With three rounds of matches remaining, Rayon appear to be already out of the race for the league title but a win today would put stop Atraco from celebrating another title just yet. Atraco lead the table standings with 46 points in 19 matches, seven points behind the Blues in third place. APR, who were due to play Kiyovu yesterday are second on 42 points. Kayiranga told Sunday Sports yesterday he is not sure whether his team will prove a threat against Atraco. “Our players have only trained twice this week and I doubt our chances of cutting Atraco’s lead at the top of the table. “We have tried everything needed to win the game but players are still not full concentrated mentally after all that they’ve gone through in the last couple of days,” Kayiranga said. The former AS-Kigali coach confession comes days after they went on strike demanding to be paid their unpaid salaries. Following weeks if not months of misunderstanding, accusations and counter accusations, Rayon on Thursday sacked coach Raoul Shungu on disciplinary grounds and Kayiranga was put in charge until end of the season. However, if Rayon players take their club’s off field problems into today’s game, they’ll stand no chance against an on-form Atraco side which needs just four points from the remaining three matches to retain the league title. According to assistant coach Emmanuel Ruremesha, the champions are well prepared for the Blues challenge. “Only Jean Lomami will miss the game with a malaria fever. Apart from him, the rest of the squad is fully fit and ready to snatch all three points,” Ruremesha said yesterday. Ends