Little surprise as Amavubi exits CHAN

Phew…I did it again, and so did Amavubi Stars. For so long, I have been accused and at times abused by some people for criticizing the national team, the Amavubi Stars whenever it fails, expectedly or not, but [this is for the purists], I don’t plan stop until the team stops being a magnet for criticism. Rwanda has been eliminated from the second edition of the final tournament of the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) after losing their opening two group matches against Senegal and Tunisia. These two defeats render the Amvubi’s last group game against Angola meaningless. Meaningless in a sense that the team can’t progress to the knockout phase even with a 10-0 win, but extremely very important because at least it means they return home with some bid of pride in the bag and of course valuable points in reserve for the next Fifa world ranking. Amavubi’s run of bad results under Sellas Tetteh has ceased to be just a blip and it is starting to become a habit, and the longer it continues the more complex the situation becomes for the players, coach but especially the coach, whose honeymoon appears to be well and truly over. After this latest failed attempt to impress in a major competition, Tetteh’s ability to guide the team to ‘great things’ is fast coming under scrutiny, and his critics, who said he was at the right place at the wrong time are rubbing their hands to and ready to say, ‘we told you this and that, blur, blur’ as soon as the axe falls. The sports ministry, Ferwafa and the coach should analyse the team’s miserable outing in Port of Sudan, the venue for their group and come up with lessons from which we should all learn. The usual excuses of insufficient preparations should not arise again since the team had enough time to prepare. Whether Ferwafa, Tetteh and his team did with that time is another business for discussion. Tetteh’s apologists, who include this columnist, have defended him and his players on several occasions since the Ghanaian took over the reigns last March, pointing to factors beyond his control. But for how long are they [Tetteh’s apologists] going to continue standing up for him? Ideally, the powers that be would use Amavubi’s dismal outing on its debut in CHAN finals as a blessing in disguise to prepare better for the team’s next 2012 Nations Cup qualifier against Burundi. For good measures, Ferwafa, the sports ministry and Tetteh need get out of their comfort zone and start seeing what the rest of us see and do something about it before it is too late to save anything Etincelles blows it at home In a week when the national team, and here am talking about the epitome of Rwandan football, has continued to showing no or few signs of improvement, it was little surprising that our representative in the CAF Confederations Cup, Etincelles Fc exited the competition at the first hurdle. When Etincelles, returning to continental scene after so long, got a 1-1 draw away to AC Leopards in Congo Brazzaville, their fans and other Rwandans warmed up to bigger things for the Rubavu based club. Ideally, Etincelles had the upper hand coming into the return leg, but since football is not played on paper but rather on the field, the Rwandan side, somehow failed to use home advantage and lost 0-2 on Saturday thereby going out of the competition 3-1 on goals aggregate. And with that, another one of our teams falters to deceive when faced with a real possibility of defying odds at the continental level. Now all eyes will be on APR when they travel to Tunisia at the end of this month for their Champions League return leg match with Club Africain. The first leg in Kigali end 2-2. nku78@yahoo.com