Cecafa crucial for Micho and his players

As the tournament approaches, anticipation is growing with each day for the national side Amavubi Stars as they prepare for this year’s Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup due in Uganda this month.Amavubi fans have seen lots of games since head coach Milutin Sredojovic Micho took over but sadly two-thirds of them have ended in defeats. When Rwanda lost in the final to Uganda last year, everyone was quick to exonerate Micho of any blame since he barely been in charge for a month. After the tournament, the Serbian coach said, “Cecafa is like a secondary school; Amavubi needs to graduate to University,” meaning the team should start competing for bigger things like the African cup of Nations.After Cecafa, the team went to Tunisia for an 11-day training camp ahead of the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifiers. We remain bottom of the table with one point after three matches and also failed to qualify for the 2013 Nations Cup thanks to defeat against Nigeria. After doing badly in the first part of the University exams, there is the small matter of the forthcoming Cecafa test, which Micho and his players need to pass with flying colors before even thinking of passing the second part of the University exams.I appreciate Micho’s work, his time in charge has brought a new sense of discipline and professionalism to the squad but I am irritated about the situation regarding performances and results. Please bear with me Micho, for what am about to say. In many ways, Amavubi performances have been as frustrating as a failed Guma Guma Primus music contest. I thought the Wasps would fly to their second Cup of Nations appearance but that wasn’t to be and it has become a familiar tale of too much barking and not enough bite.For those who’ve missed the story during his introduction at press conference towards the end of 2011 at Ferwafa, the objective was qualifying to 2013 South African or 2014 Brazil.Now the burning questions is can Rwanda win Cecafa this year? If yes, then how much would friendly matches against Namibia improve the team? I’m not a coach but the most important point is Micho is not getting closer to answering that question effectively despite the fact that he fared well in the last tournament staged in Tanzania.One of the issues ignored when recruiting a national head coach is the level of experience with the national side, compared to club level. Amavubi performances can be evidence of a coach good enough at club level and not so goof at international level. Earlier this year, Micho admitted: “Amavubi is good on the Cecafa level but we need to improve beyond our region.” How good are we on regional level visa vie beyond out Cecafa boarders? The decision by the big teams like APR, Police to change their police to use only Rwandan players will in the long run help the national team but in the short term, are we ready to be patient as Micho builds a strong team for the future?Of course, young players like Farouk Ruhinda, Justin Micho and Emily Bayisenge, still have a lot to learn before we can rely on them to produce the goods at the senior level.Coaches live and die by their results and Micho knows he will be judged more by how the team does in Kampala than against Mali when the 2014 World Cup qualifiers return in March next year.

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Cecafa crucial for Micho and his players