Rwanda U-23 assistant Coach Vincent Mashami picked positives from his side’s double loss to Uganda Kobs in the CAF U-23 Championship qualifiers.
The Kobs won 2-1 away from home before completing the job at Nakivubo with a 2-0 victory to progress to the next round on a 4-1 aggregate victory but Mashami wasn’t aggrieved.
“Congratulations to Uganda Kobs. They deserved the victory but we have picked lessons,” Mashami told Kawowo Sports after the game at Nakivubo.
“I don’t think we are bad either. They were better than us in front of goal just. Over two legs, I think we created more scoring opportunities but we couldn’t put them away,” he added.
The soft spoken tactician who stood in as head coach in the absence of Johnny McKinstry who is attending a UEFA Pro Course back home further revealed that his team is still growing.
“We are still developing as a side. Our build up play from defence to midfield is fine but it’s in the final third that we need to polish up.”
The same sentiments were echoed by skipper Emery Bayisenge who said he doesn’t think Uganda was superior over two legs.
“The 4-1 aggregate loss doesn’t reflect what was on the pitch but we take that. I don’t think we played bad. We didn’t take our chances and we were punished. That’s how cruel football can be.”
On the next step after this, Bayisenge said it’s now club as we await the CHAN finals which Rwanda will host early next year.
“We are down but not out. We have CHAN finals to come and if we keep the spirit, we’ll do better.”
