It’s more than eleven

We all know that a soccer team on pitch is made of eleven players and more than that would sound pretty much eerie. That’s practically correct. But – untraditionally – we can think out of box and ponder on various ways across the board to throw in a few spanners for a strategic approach when we date Zambia in the Africa Cup Nations crunch tie next month. It’s clear that – irrespective of our dismal run in the campaign – Rwanda’s national soccer team Amavubi still stand a chance to make it to the Africa’s most glamorous soccer event to be hosted in Luanda, Angola early next year. The statement “still standing a chance” sounds a bit sugar coated or something like a downhill task to be executed. Well, in this case is more or less like that. It’s rather an uphill task to be executed since we are short of nothing but to find the Zambian net thrice while keeping it a taboo for them to nod or tap a ball in our net. Although the target is as intricate as milking a buffalo, it should be deemed achievable. This has been manifested before when we needed a win of any form and grabbed it against Africa’s four-time champion Ghana at Amahoro National Stadium to earn our Africa Cup of Nations maiden appearance in Tunis 2004. We managed to record that feat because we all threw our weight behind the team and created a 12th man. Here we are again in a similar situation – although it is this time round quite harder because we need three goals sunk in the Zambian net unanswered. However, we cannot erase the fact that we can make it through once we plan strategically and plot for the fall of Zambia come November 14. How? Like I earlier said, we need to incorporate a 12th man on the team. This 12th man will be strongly present on the pitch but very invisible and invincible. He will be a man an opponent will not be able to see or run after but his presence will be strongly felt on every angle of the pitch. His presence will have Zambians fully frustrated and vulnerable to a drubbing from the super Rwandan side. His inclusion on the team will forge an impenetrable backline, a creative mid park, and a lethal striking force blended with razor-sharpness. He is mighty and rocky. He can’t fail. He wins. Who is that? It’s me, you and everyone living and operating in Rwanda. How do we then create the 12th man on the national team when we face Zambia to earn qualification? This can be appropriately addressed through an adoption of an all-coordinated approach, bringing together the entire populace to form a 12th man. However, we need the leadership role to be taken up by the ministry of sports and the soccer governing body, Ferwafa, in order to build an all-stakeholders force. We need both public and private sector to feel that they are charged with the responsibility of pushing our national team to the Africa Cup of Nations Cup in Angola. Please! I am getting a bit emotional on this. We need to see corporate companies approached to make motivational offers. How do we make this happen? We need to see a company like MTN Rwanda or any other announcing that each player would walk away with 10,000,000 Rwandan francs each if they beat Zambia and qualify for CAN. We need to see Bralirwa coming out to announce that a player who scores a brace will earn 20,000,000 Rwandan francs and also that a player who hits a hat-trick will pocket 30,000,000 Rwandan francs. We need to hear the government posting it on board that if the team qualifies every player will drive away with a land cruiser. This might not be a brilliant idea to be considered but I believe it has good intentions in whichever way you could design. The sine qua non is something has to be done along those lines. Yes we can go to CAN! Feel it! ensekanabo@gmail.com