AS Kigali coach eyes 4th women league title

After garnering maximum points from the ten games played so far in the first round of the women national football league, AS Kigali coach Marie Grace Nyinawumuntu is looking forward to winning the title for a third consecutive season.

Thursday, April 04, 2013
Grace Nyinawumuntu is regarded by many as Rwanda's best woman football coach. The New Times / File.

After garnering maximum points from the ten games played so far in the first round of the women national football league, AS Kigali coach Marie Grace Nyinawumuntu is looking forward to winning the title for a third consecutive season.Despite the fact that the club was formulated in 2006 and started competing in 2008, the Kigali City sponsored team has worked restlessly to improve every other season.However, their winning strategy is to keep training till they have the trophy."Comparing our team to the other teams that were formed before us, there is a great improvement on our side but we need to stay focused and keep improving,” Nyinawumuntu told this reporter on Wednesday at the team’s training ground at Stade de Kigali in Nyamirambo.The former national team skipper added, "We have all the materials we need to train and play well, we are not looking at the second or third team, our eyes are on the league title.”AS Kigali has won the women league in the last three seasons back-to-back and currently lead the table with 30 points, seven points more than APR in the second position."Our team is more like a family. We win together and lose together. We have very good communication skills as a family and we help bring out the best in each other. "I not only train them to become good players but also good coaches after they retire from playing more so every after the training, as a team we are taking on English classes to be able to communicate well with others who don’t understand Kinyarwanda or if we travel outside the country,” she explained.Despite long term injuries of two key players; defender Nadia Uwineza and striker Chadia Uwamahirwe, Nyinawumuntu is confident her team is on course to win a record-extending fourth league title in a row."However much we train and put ourselves in a good position to win, the most important motivation these girls need is support. It really feels good to see the stadium filled to capacity and we also need the media to report about the female games because honestly these girls are good at what they do,” she noted.