Dream Team to face Rwanda in warm up match

Rwanda will face the Nigeria U-23 national football side on July 25 in Kigali ahead of the latter’s return leg fixture against Congo Brazzaville in the Rio 2016 Olympic qualifier.


Amavubi coach Johnny McKinstry has named locally based players for the friendly game.

McKinstry is using this friendly as part of Rwanda’s continued preparation for CHAN 2016 that will be hosted in Kigali from January 16 to February 7. The 26-man squad entered camp on Sunday afternoon and had commenced training at Amahoro Stadium.

Amahoro Stadium is the venue for the friendly against the Dream Team, who will make a stop-over in Kigali before heading to Brazzaville.

McKinstry named a side with no APR player except for goalkeeper Olivier Kwizera and right winger Bertrand Iradukunda.

The two were not included in the army side’s 20-man squad that is featuring at the ongoing Cecafa Kagame Cup in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which will go on till August 2.

The Irish tactician said: “The clash of dates with Cecafa obviously means that we will assess a further set of players given those who are with APR are not be available,” explained McKinstry.

“This will be very worthwhile as it will help us to expand our national team player pool with players that we have been able to assess fully in the international environment through this game.”

Ernest Sugira, who scored the lone strike against Mozambique in the AFCON 2017 opening qualifier, as well as Jacques Tuyisenge, who provided the assist have been included in the provisional squad. Teenagers Kevin Muhire, Dominique Savio Nshuti and Danny Usengimana also made the cut.