Five things we learned from Rwanda’s CHAN elimination

The national football team, Amavubi will not play the African Nations Championship (CHAN) for the first time since 2016 after Saturday’s 0-1 second leg qualifier defeat against Ethiopia saw Carlos Ferrer and his men eliminated from next year’s CHAN 2023 finals. Striker Dawa scored the lone goal of the game that separated the two sides to qualify his nation to the CHAN finals in Algeria. Times Sport looks at five things that we learned from the match: Haruna must play in more central role Haruna Niyonzima is by far the most naturally gifted player in the Amavubi set up but he is not being used well which makes his influence to the team’s success very minimal. Haruna can dribble, pass, uses both feet, creates chances and also score goals but he has been restricted to the wings which makes his contribution less. It is about time the technical team led by Carlos Alos revised the role of the Amavubi skipper and deployed him in a more central attacking position (number 8 or 10) as he will have great influence in the team from that position because of his technical abilities. Hotessa, the Ethiopian hero Ethiopia had not scored a goal during the past six games until Dawa Hotessa scored a free kick to send the traveling fans wild at Huye Stadium. He also helped his team take revenge against Rwanda who beat them twice to qualify for the past two editions of the CHAN finals. Ferrer’s poor record While Rwandans thought the Spanish coach joined the national team as the right man to end the nation’s misfortunes, the numbers behind the current national team’s performance don’t speak for him at all compared to his predecessors as he is only breaking records in a wrong way. It’s under Ferrer that Rwanda on Saturday failed to qualify to the 2023 CHAN finals for the first time since 2016, having previously qualified for the biennial tournament three consecutive times under both Vincent Mashami and Johnny Mckinstry. While his performances continue to raise question marks, Ferrer will need to turn the results around, especially during the ongoing 2023 AFCON qualifiers, if he is to regain the confidence of Amavubi fans. Amavubi’s goal drought continues Jacques Tuyisenge has been struggling to find the back of the net for club and country and his performance during Saturday’s encounter shows that his pace and efficiency in front of goal are off the mark, having failed to manage a single shot on target during the 90 minutes of the game. Same goes to Bertrand Iradukunda who is yet to regain his confidence in front of goal since he was released by Township Rollers. The tactician, whose team only managed two goals during the four games he has coached as Amavubi coach, will need to sharpen the attack for him to be able to qualify Rwanda for AFCON. Abdul Rwatubyaye showed class The talented defender has been out of action since January this year after sustaining a heel injury during a mid-season training camp with FK Shkupi in Turkey but remained resolute at the back for the Amavubi throughout the game against Ethiopia. As a player who had been in the treatment room for such a long time, many thought he would have been rusty but Rwatubyaye was at his usual best and put up a great showing for the Amavubi on the day.

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Five things we learned from Rwanda’s CHAN elimination