APR, Elman face-off in Cecafa Kagame Cup

Coach Andreas Spier will taste his first regional football experience when he guides three-time champions APR against Somalia’s Elman in the opening match of Group A of the 2013 Cecafa Kagame Club Championship this afternoon in Al Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan.The German tactician only took over the reigns towards the end of the just concluded league season but failed to guide the military side into this year’s Peace Cup final after losing to AS Kigali.He will be hungry to guide APR to the title which the 13-time Rwandan league champions have never won on foreign soil.The team reached Al Fasher yesterday and held evening training sessions ahead of today’s match.A win against the less fancied Somali side would boost APR’s confidence going into their second match on Friday against hosts El Merreikh Al Fasher before winding up their group stage on Sunday against Burundian champions, Vital’O, who ejected them out of this year’s Africa Champions league in the first round.The regional tournament started yesterday with URA FC defeating home side El Hilal Kadugli 1-0 in South Kordofan State. Having been piped to the league title by rivals Rayon Sports, the military side crashed out of the 2013 Peace Cup edition in the semi-final at the hands of AS Kigali to endure one of their worst seasons in its 20-year history.APR finished third with 46 points, 11 points behind the champions Rayon Sports and a further six points adrift of Police, who secured second position for a third successive season.APR, who have won the regional Cecafa/Kagame Cup title in 2004, 2007 and 2010, will be hoping to claim this year’s title for the first time on a foreign soil if they are not to end the season empty-handed.Arch-rivals Rayon Sports were the first Rwandan side to win the title away from home in 1998 under Coach Raoul Shungu before Atraco repeated it in 2009 in Khartoum, Sudan.Last year, APR FC left Tanzania empty-handed after finishing fourth following a third-playoff 2-1 loss to AS Vita of DR Congo.President Paul Kagame has been the sponsor of these championships since 2002 to a tune worth US$ 60, 000.