Rayon Sports team hosts APR FC at the Kigali Stadium in Nyamirambo, this Saturday, December 17, 2022, starting at 9:00 a.m. in the 14th day of the Championship. These teams meet in this football game that draws more people than any other in Rwanda.
This is one of those games where the light hearted prefer to stay away from technology to find out what happened later while others eat early to avoid eating after the game and they would choose it in tears.
Claude is the referee for this match. He will be assisted by Ishimwe Didier and Bamporiki Désiré on the sidelines, while Ruzindana Nsoro will be the fourth referee. Rayon Sports are yet to find a win against APR FC since they won 1-0 in April 2019.
Since then, the two teams have played seven games, the Defense team from the fourth group is the last meeting in May in the Peace Cup which ended with 2-1 goals, three ties. APR FC coached by Moroccan, Adil Mohammed Erradi, attacked Rayon Sports so hard that the only thing they managed was a draw.
Since December 2019, Mexican Javier Martínez Espinoza, DRC Guy Bukasa and Burundian Masudi Djuma have lost their jobs at Rayon Sports after losing to APR FC.
It is while the Portuguese Jorge Manuel da Silva Paixão Santos has not renewed his contract with the club after being released by APR FC in ½ of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 2021/22 season will be void.
Rayon Sports is under more pressure in this game than APR FC because apart from being short-handed, they also lost to Etincelles FC 3-2 in the last game. Rayon Sports is going to play this game in second place temporarily, after AS Kigali won 1-0 against Felix Lotin’s Gorilla FC on Thursday.
So this must have put Rayon Sports under pressure as their management has said they are looking for the league title this year.
Coach Haringingo Francis is under pressure because after the defeat by Musanze FC and Etincelles FC, the fans of this team are very angry with him and some soon asked him to be fired even though he was still in the first place.
This is the game that ends Rayon Sports sacking the coach as it happened in previous years and Haringingo is the one who bought the players he wanted. What shows the pressure on this coach is that he stayed in Rubavu after the Etincelles FC match, watching APR FC and Rutsiro FC to study.
Haringi knows that beating APR FC is not an easy task even though he beat them twice in the last season in Kyiv Sports. Another thing that shows that Haringingo is under pressure is that he decided to rest his teammate Esombe Willy Onana in the last game so that he can play on this Saturday.
This pressure is also in the management of Rayon Sports because on December 13, 2022, its President Uwayezu Jean Fidèle said: “For the past three years we have not won the APR, we will compete. On Friday it is death or recovery, it is the last game. We have the responsibility to win since for the players, for the coaches. Let’s fight. We have to win.”
APR FC reunited with their fans last time when they beat Rutsiro 2-0 but they have been on a 4 match winless run including 3 goals scored. Although he is not under much pressure, he knows that winning this game would increase his strength in the search for the championship.
This is a long overdue game for both sides as each is in a good position to compete and all have full players although Ndizey Samuel is doubtful for Rayon Sports. Hakizimana Adolphe has also been injured for a few days but has recovered.
Currently, AS Kigali is the first with 30 points, Rayon Sports is the second with 28, APR FC is the 3rd with 24 equal to Kiyovu Sports. Today Marines FC drew with Sunrise FC 2-2.
Entry fees for this game are 5000 Frw, 10 thousand Frw, 30 thousand Frw and 100 thousand Frw. Since 1995, APR FC and Rayon Sports have met 96 times including league matches, Peace Cup and other competitions.
In all these times APR FC won more matches as they won 42, Rayon Sports won 29 and drew 25 times.
