Poor midfield cost Rwanda

2010 World/Africa Cup qualifiers Group EightMorocco 2-0 Rwanda Amavubi Stars’ failure to assert any authority in the midfield was their major downfall in the 2-0 loss to Morocco in the 2010 World/Africa Cup qualifier in Casablanca on Saturday. The two teams opted for a congested midfield with both coaches going for five in the middle but it was the home team that dominated a match they had to win to bring back sanity to their fans following the 3-1 reverse in the first leg. Amavubi Stars’ Branko Tucak started with Jean Mugiraneza, Olivier Karekezi, Haruna Niyonzima, Patrick Mafisango and Labama Bokota with Saidi Abedi Makasi playing as the lone striker. However, the coach made one tactical blunder even before a ball was kicked when he fielded Mafisango, his best player from the last three matches on the left side instead of keeping in his more familiar holding role. Mugiraneza, who started the match in the absence of the suspended Mbuyu Twite (Eric Gasana) was handed the holding role, a task that proved too be tough for him against the more experienced Morocco midfield led by their captain Youssef Safri. The Southampton midfielder was Amavubi’s destroyer-in-chief as he controlled the game with sublime passes.Tucak has not realized the effects of fielding Mafisango and Mugiraneza in the same squad at the same time. The pair can not flourish in the same team not because they play a similar game but because their game rotates around the same line. Amavubi’s players in the midfield were poor on the night and even the ever reliable Mafisango played below par compared to the way they had played in the previous three games against Mauritania, Ethiopia and Morocco. Playing in his familiar holding role, Mafisango drained Morocco’s midfield in the 3-1 home win last Saturday a week in Kigali and his switch to the left side left so many loop holes, which the opponents took full advantage of on Saturday. Skipper Olivier Karekezi and striker Bokota were nowhere not in the game as their main pass-provider, Mafisango was kept far on the left winger. A defeat is a defeat but the likes of Aloua Gaseruka, Hamad Ndikumana and APR starlet Haruna Niyonzima were the Rwanda’s outstanding players compared to their team mates. The Atlas Lions, who played with so much confidence and determination, went ahead eleven minutes into the game when Youssef Safri converted a penalty after Ndikumana had impeded Ahmed Ajedou. Four minutes after the interval El Zhar Nabir scored Morocco’s second goal to put the game beyond Rwanda’s reach. The Amavubi Stars, that had fourplayers booked and one sent off ,were outplayed throughout and they got exactly what they their performance on the night deserved. Mugiraneza and Aimable Rucogoza, two players starting their first game of the campaign were booked while Elias Ntaganda saw red for a second book able offense on El Zhar Nabir. The other player yellow carded was Ndikumana. After the loss, Rwanda slipped to second position in group eight, level on nine points with Morocco but the Atlas Lions are head with a better goal difference of 10 against Amavubi eight. Ends

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Poor midfield cost Rwanda