How Amavubi can beat Benin

Concentrate on doing the basics, don’t give the opponent too much space, key players need to rise to the occasion, have fans on your side and attackers need to fight for every chance.Coaches are judged on results in most cases, and at times, on their ability to lift their players up from defeat and get them ready for the next match.Head coach Milutin Sredojevic, commonly referred to Micho, has a difficult task of lifting his players from last Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Algeria for a ‘must win’ game against Benin on Sunday.Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that is how desperate Amavubi team will be when they take on Benin in the second match of the 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifying campaign at Amahoro stadium.The last time Benin were in Kigali, they won 3-0 at Amahoro stadium—in October 2010, and last Sunday they beat Mali 1-0 in Cotonou to join Algeria at the top of Group H. No booing playersAlthough Rwanda avenged the home defeat by winning in Cotonou in the return leg, thanks to a debut goal by debutant Meddie Kagere, the damage had already been done in the corresponding fixture at Amahoro stadium where home fans turned on their players by booing them at full time.There are sides to fans jeering their own players—it can work as a kick in the backside for the players to lift their game or, if the players are not good, mature and brave enough to take it on the chin, it simply takes away even the little fight left in them. Come Sunday, Micho and his players must do everything possible to have fans on their side throughout the match. This is the game in which the Serb coach must show Amavubi fans whether he is in the job for a long haul. It will determine if he gets a contract extension or simply serve his existing one before leaving like most of his predecessors.Keep it tightMicho must train his defenders and also remind them all the time to be on their toes for the 90 minutes and the strikers to take their chances, however few they may be—even half chances should be fought for as if life depended on that.The midfield must be tight enough to deny Benin’s middle and wide men too much space to pass and or cross the ball into the box. The coach needs to borrow a leaf from the notices he took down when Amavubi played Nigeria in March. On that day, every player on the field played his part in securing a goalless draw, and whoever gets a chance to play on Sunday must be ready to play their part—this will certainly keep the fans alive and behind the team. Haruna Niyonzima, Amavubi’s most creative force, needs to stamp his mark on the game than he did against Algeria where the game bypassed him like a pedestrian, while Jean Baptiste Mugiraneza, as the man between midfield and defence, must raise his game too.Anything less would only spur on the opponents, who will be led by striker Razak Omotoyossi and play-maker Stephane Sessegnon. Attackers must take chancesWhereas Micho has a lot to prove on Sunday, including whether he has the guts to make big calls, skipper Olivier Karekezi has even more on his shoulders than the coach.As the country’s leading marksman with 24 international goals, the 29-year old striker needs to play the leading role—if he can make the fans sing his name, he has more chances than not to add to his tally.But he needs to be helped by whoever partners him in a two-man striker-force, whether Micho goes with Kagere or Dady Birori, but it will most likely be the former, whose partnership with his captain caused all sorts of problems for opposition defences during the last Cecafa senior challenge cup in Tanzania. After three defeats and a draw in the last four matches with 12 goals conceded and just two scored, it shows where the team’s main problem lies, and if Micho and his technical staff can find a solution in the next couple of days and the fans do their job, the home team can hope for a narrow win.

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How Amavubi can beat Benin