Police FC to face KCC, URA in pre-season preps

Last season’s league runner-ups Police FC are set to play two pre-season frindlies against Ugandan sides Kampala City Council (KCC) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) this coming weekend as part of preparations for the 2013/14 National Football League season.Head coach Sam Ssimbwa told Times Sport yesterday, “I was in Uganda recently to arrange for the friendly matches and they are waiting for the official invitation. We hope the matches are played at the weekend provided all parties involved reach an agreement.”“The matches will help us to prepare for the new season. I need such big games to help get to know more about my players,” noted the former Atraco FC coach.Ssimbwa, who admitted that he doesn’t have a say in the recruitment of players at his new club, revealed that he doesn’t know the players yet and needs more time to understand each player to be able to put them to good use for the coming campaign.“All new players are being recruited by my bosses and as the policy of featuring only Rwandan players stands, I need at least six months to know the players and hopefully at mid season, I will be able to know whether we can achieve the set targets or not, depending on the performance of these players,” he noted.Both KCC and URA have been on a pre-season tour in Tanzania where they played against the top sides Yanga and Simba respectively.URA finished second in the Uganda league last season and competed in this year’s Cecafa Kagame Cup where they were knocked out in the quarter-final by Rayon Sports.After sacking Serbian coach Goran Kopunovic, Ssimbwa was brought into Police coaching fray to ensure that the Cops side win the national football league next season.Kopunovic joined the club three years ago and had taken them to two Peace Cup finals, a first appearance in the Caf Confederation Cup and helped them finish third three seasons in a row. This is Ssimbwa’s second stint as coach in Rwanda after managing Atraco FC in 2006 but never won any silverware before he was sacked.His first major task will be to wrestle the league title from champions Rayon Sports, who won the title with 57 points, five ahead of Police FC who finished second on the 14 team log.The 2013/14 National football league season gets underway on September 21.