Richard Tardy can lead Rwanda to success

THE past two months have been devastating for the national junior teams following their early elimination from the running for next year’s Africa Youth Championships.The U-20 team was the first to bow out after they failed to hold up their 2-1 first leg cushion and lost 0-3 against Mali’s U-20 in Bamako in the return leg in August. The loss meant that Rwanda will miss next year’s Africa Youth Championship which will be held in Algeria.The junior wasps had beaten Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Heroes in two separate friendly matches with 2-0 and 2-1 victories in Dar es Salaam. After Tanzania, they edged out Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets 1-0 in a friendly match.Those were three build up matches played ahead of the Mali leg considering that Rwanda had eliminated Namibia in the preliminary round with a 4-1 aggregate score.A month later, their juniors, the U-17 team faced Botswana in a campaign marred by poor preparations. The team, which lost terribly to Nigeria’s U-17 team 8-0 in two friendly matches, showed no signs of getting past the first round despite being given a bye from the preliminary round.They lost 1-0 in Molepolole in the first leg and everyone thought they could make amends in the second leg, and indeed they went on to win it 1-0 courtesy of Patrick Sibomana’s late free kick and qualification was decided on spot kicks were Rwanda lost 5-6.Despite the junior wasps playing incredibly well, it was still a shame to the country, which a year ago had reached the finals of the Africa U-17 championship and even qualified for the first time to compete in the Fifa U-17 World Cup held in Mexico.The way the young boys outplayed Botswana proved beyond reasonable doubt that French coach Richard Tardy can revamp the country’s youth football if Ferwafa and Minispoc ensured a conducive working environment.Tardy submitted both his plans for the next U-20 and U-17 teams a year ago shortly after returning back from Mexico. Ferwafa under the new management led by Celestin Ntagungira never took into account the status of these teams.Ferwafa and Ministry of Sports and Culture had to think about the fate of these two teams after the qualifying draws were released by CAF early this year.But, instead of devising means of planning for early preparations for both teams, Ferwafa Secretary General Michel Gasingwa was busy fighting with Tardy’s coaching staff.He wanted Vincent Mashami (assistant coach), Calliope Kabalisa (goalkeeping coach), Emery Kamanzi (team manager) and team Doctor Patrick Rutamu out, so that he brings on board new staff to assume their roles.It is a pity that even when the U-17 team faced early elimination, it was only Emmanuel Bugingo, the Director of Sports in the Ministry of Sports, who regularly visited the young boys in camp.The poor performance of both the U-20 and U-17 teams was as a result of lack of focus, poor preparations and poor planning. We have counted losses this year and we should not live to regret the same mistakes in two years’ time. Let us prepare the next teams as early as possible and stop waiting to start preparations in the final year of qualification campaigns.This can be done if only, before the end of this year, an U-15 team is selected and keep together the current U-17 team and rigorously prepare them for 2015 continental championships. Last year’s U-17 team and the current side have proved that we actually have the players to take this country to another level of international football but there is no clear scouting mechanism to unearth them.And If Tardy is given more support in preparing two more generations to join the current U-20 and U-17 teams, then by 2017, we can have a strong Amavubi team.