Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Al Hilal Benghazi had more information about us. They even had clips of our training sessions and they knew us,” Rayon Sports head coach Zelfani Yamen admitted in his post-match briefing after the 1-1 draw against Al Hilal Benghazi in the CAF Confederation Cup second round first leg at Kigali Pele Stadium.<\/p>\nThe Tunisian acknowledged that: \u201cWe played a good game but we missed so many chances.\u201d He then talked of how his side lacked the \u201cneeded firepower\u201d upfront as they \u201ccould have scored an avalanche of goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talk of conceding an \u2018own goal\u2019.<\/p>\n
From the outside, it is hard to believe that those two paragraphs include quotes from the same person, and a professional coach at that. You would expect a coach to make all the necessary noise following a not-so-good result but admitting (publicly) that the opponent knows you more than you know them, should not be.<\/p>\n
Zelfani admitted that the opponent had more information about Rayon Sports\u2019 tactics and formation(s) but it didn\u2019t stop his team from dominating the match and creating better scoring chances, which, in brief, renders his excuse superfluous.<\/p>\n
Technically, the away team despite playing in Kigali, Rayon Sports could be assumed to have been handed an early advantage but they failed to make the most of it, which puts pressure on them to finish the job in the second leg on Saturday, at the same venue.<\/p>\n
Zelfani, seeking to become the first man to lead the Rwandan side to the group stages of Africa\u2019s second premier club competition, noted: “I am looking forward to the second leg and I am sure to qualify Rayon to the next stage.\u201d Rayon fans will hope it\u2019s not a case of easier said than done.<\/p>\n
The \u2018away\u2019 team played more like the home side for larger parts of the game, creating more clear-cut chances, which led the coach to admit: \u201cOur performance was good in the first leg but I am not happy with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lacked concentration and conceded a late goal.”<\/p>\n
Ideally, a coach would blame his players for the drop in concentration levels and conceding a late equalizer but Zelfani chose to fault Al Hilal Benghazi for having studied and spied on his team\u2019s training sessions!<\/p>\n
This should rank up there as one of the laziest excuses any coach would come up with for not getting the desired result. Studying an opponent in the build-up to the match is probably the oldest trick there is in football books.<\/p>\n
And you would expect Rayon Sports coach to be in a position to know this better and mustn\u2019t \u2018complain\u2019 about it, especially in public, for, doing so in front of the media, exhibits weakness not strength on his part.<\/p>\n
What the Libyan side did, if indeed it\u2019s true that they had clips of Rayon in training, is not illegal. Instead, the onus falls squarely on any club, or team, to protect their training sessions from the prying eyes of their opponents.<\/p>\n
Zelfani and his team could have chosen to move their training camp away from Kigali where Al Hilal Benghazi was based, to a faraway location or simply train behind closed doors. Instead, they chose neither, hence leaving the coach to expose his team\u2019s not-so-professional approach in the build-up to the game.<\/p>\n
With the match played in front of an empty stadium due to the fact that Al Hilal Benghazi \u2013 the home team \u2013 didn\u2019t bring their fans, the Blues took the lead through Congolese forward Heritier Luvumbu who converted from the penalty spot nine minutes into the second half.<\/p>\n
Rayon, if they don\u2019t finish the job on Saturday, will have no one but their misfiring forwards to blame. They had chances to take the tie away from their opponents who equalized with six minutes of normal time left courtesy of Ezzeddin El Maremi’s header albeit against the run of play.<\/p>\n
The silver lining for Rayon Sports though is that they will play the second leg in front of a full house, which will be a major boost for the players. Hopefully, they will win so that Zelfani will not be faced with another difficult situation of conjuring further excuses for his team\u2019s shortcomings. Good luck!<\/p>\n
For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamza Nkuutu Africa-Press – Rwanda. Al Hilal Benghazi had more information about us. They even had clips of our training sessions and they knew us,” Rayon Sports head coach Zelfani Yamen admitted in his post-match briefing after the 1-1 draw against Al Hilal Benghazi in the CAF Confederation Cup second round first leg at Kigali […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":53703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,761],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-53704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\n
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