The National women football team kicked off preparations for Caf Africa Women’s Championship qualifiers over the weekend at Ferwafa turf. The team under the tutelage of head coach Grace Nyinawumuntu is camping at La Hotel Nyandugu as they hope to eliminate Kenya in the first round due on February 14 in Kigali as the road to the 2014 finals heats up. Nyinawumuntu started intensive preparations with 36 players all eyeing a place in the final 23 team which will be named a week prior to the scheduled game. Twenty five teams will vie for the seven places up for grabs to join hosts Namibia for the finals scheduled October 11-25. Nyinawumuntu, 31, expressed optimism that her team will overcome the Kenya hurdle. The second leg is scheduled for February 28 through March 2 in Nairobi, Kenya with the winner proceeding to the next round to face the winner in the Nigeria/Sierra Leone fixture. Rwanda’s last competitive game was in 2009 – against Uganda – in the preliminary round of the Under-20 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers which they lost 1-0 in Kigali. The second and final round first leg matches will be played from May 23-25 and the second leg matches between June 7 and 8 to decide who joins Namibia for the finals in Windhoek. Equatorial Guinea won the last edition after beating South Africa 4-0 in the final, while Cameroon edged Nigeria 1-0 to claim third place. Equatorial Guinea, runners-up South Africa and bronze medalists Cameroon will only join the qualifiers quest in the second round.
