Rwanda vs Ghana: Can history repeat itself ?

Twelve years ago, Rwanda beat Ghana 1-0 at Amahoro stadium to qualify for the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia. The question is, can history repeat itself when the two teams meet this afternoon at the same venue looking for ticket to AFCON 2017 in Gabon?

In football, sometimes history repeats itself as we saw early this year when Ivory Coast defeated Ghana to be crowned the African champions for the second time on penalties, 24 years after their first title, when they edged out the Black Stars, also on penalties after a goalless draw.

Therefore, if Amavubi players give their best against Ghana, there could be a chance of history repeating itself, according to former Amavubi Stars captain and coach Eric Nshimiyimana.

Rwanda made history on Jul 6, 2003 when they defeated Ghana 1-0 thanks to Jimmy Gatete’s second half header. But from that time, the Black Stars have qualified for the World Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2014 and have not missed out on the AFCON finals tournament.

Nshimiyimana, who was part of Rwanda’s victory over Ghana in 2003, sees Avram Grant’s team as the best team in Africa with world class players but still believes that Amavubi can get a good result, if only they stick to the coach’s game plan.

“The game today is totally different from the one of 2003, because, then for us we wanted to win the match and qualify. But now they need a good result because there is still a long way in the campaign. It is very difficult to compare our team with the current one,” Nshimiyimana told Saturday Sport.

He added, “Back then, it was a great moment for the whole country to beat Ghana, especially after we had also beaten Uganda. Every player gave his best to achieve that win, and I believe Rwandans will always remember that moment when we qualified, it was the biggest thing to happen to the country in sporting terms.”

Currently head coach of  AS Kigali, Nshimiyimana noted that, back then the players were not under a lot of pressure going into the Ghana clash because they had beaten it in the previous qualifier.

The Amavubi team of 12 years ago had a great deal of experienced players.

“Back then, we had a lot of experienced players in the team, some playing in Europe and we knew we were going to face superior opponents but we always knew that we were capable of winning the game

“Before the game, the President visited our training camp and motivated us that the whole country was behind us so should go and make it (country) proud, and thankfully we did. The whole country was positive, everyone wanted us to win.”

He also noted that 12 years ago, the media was not as vibrant as it is today, which meant the players did their thing without fear of being picked on by media in case of any mistake.

Marking Appiah

During the game, Amavubi coach Djukovic Ratomir assigned Nshimiyimana the task to man-mark Ghana’s star player, Sammy Appiah.

He recalls, “We had watched their videos on TV and I took one week to study his movement and his strongest side, so I think I did my job really well because we won and he didn’t score.”

The goal came just at the start of the second half after Elias Ntaganda’s cross from the left wing which Gatete scored with a cool header to send the thousands inside Amahoro stadium, including President Kagame and the whole country into wild celebrations.

“It was great for whole country. Jimmy (Gatete) has lot of qualities, dribbling, scoring and shooting so it is hard see a player who matches those qualities in the current team,”

Former Amavubi skipper, Olivier Karekezi says the team can take confidence from the 2003 win to get a good result. “They don’t have to fear, everyone knows that Ghana are favourites but our young team can make history again by winning when no one expects them to.”

Team that beat Ghana in 2003:

Mouhamud Mossi, Abdul Sibomana, Elias Ntaganda, Hamad ‘Katauti’ Ndikumana, Leandre Bizagwira, Eric Nshimiyimana, Jean Pierre Joao Elias Manamana, Olivier Karekezi, Désiré Mbonabucya, Gatete Jimmy and Saidi Abedi Makasi.

Substitutes:Ramadhani Nkunzingoma, Frédéric Rusanganwa, Canisius Nshimiyimana, Henri Munyaneza, Jean Lomani, Benoit Mukoko and Jean Paul Nsengiyumva.

By Peter Kamasa, New Times