October 27, 2023
The Burundi League A or the Burundi Primus League as it is known for sponsorship reasons ( Primus is a local beer ) was one of the few leagues that played through the 2020 Covid pandemic when other leagues were suspended. Indeed, although matches in the league were suspended for a few weeks, that was due to election rallies being held in football stadiums rather than for health reasons.
These two sides played a two-legged tie in the Burundi Cup in late May/early June 2020 with the games being live streamed on YouTube on the Indundi TV channel. The matches ended with a 1-1 draw and then Rukinzo winning the second leg 2-1 away from home.
Games in Burundi no longer appear to be streamed live on YouTube, but instead are available to watch live on the FIFA+ website.
The Primus League consists of 16 sides, who play each other home and away for a 30 game season, which typically runs from mid-August to mid-May. The current champions are Bumamuru, from Buganda the north-west of the country, who finished one point ahead of Flambeau du Centre. Aigle Noir ended in 5th place, 15 points behind the champions, and 9 points clear of Rukinzo in 6th place.
The champions in the two previous seasons were Flambeau du Centre, who come from the country’s political capital Gitega, in the centre of the country, and Le Messager du Ngozi from Ngozi in the north of Burundi.
National Team
Burundi’s national team are currently 142th in the FIFA rankings, with their most notable achievement being qualification for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for the first ( and only ) time. Their most widely known players are probably ex-West Bromwich Albion, Stoke and England Under 21 striker Saido Berahino ( 18 caps ) who is now playing in Cyprus for AEL Limassol, and ex-Coventry and Newcastle midfielder Gael Bigirimana ( 22 caps ). Only 5 of the most recent national squad play their football in Burundi, with the rest scattered around Africa ( South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda & Zambia ), lower divisions in Europe ( Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic and Turkey ), plus Iran, Canada and USA.
Aigle Noir had one player in the national squad but defender Collins Muhindo was not part of their team for this match.
Rukinzo
Rukinzo FC were founded in 2015 as the team of the national police, and initially the side was made up by serving officers. I don’t know if this is still the case.
Whilst they have never won the Burundi league, they have won the Burundi Cup twice, in 2020/21 and 2021/22. Originally, Rukinzo played their home games in Burundi’s largest city and the economic capital Bujumbura, but this season at least, they are playing in the 7,000 capacity Stade Urunani in Buganda, which has a plastic pitch.
Rukinzo started the day in 4th place in the league table having played 10 matches, with a 6-1-3 record. The three losses had all being away from home, at the hands of last season’s champions Bumamuru ( 0-2 ), and the top two in the table Flambeau ( 0-1 ) and Vital’O ( 0-3 ). They had won all 4 of their home matches.
Aigle Noir
Aigle Noir ( The Black Eagles ) play in Makamba in the south of the country, and won their only league title in 2018/19. Known as The Fighters, their home ground is the 35,000 capacity Nkurunziza Peace Park Stadium, and the club put lengthy highlights of their games on YouTube.
Aigle Noir won the 2023 President’s Cup with a 3-1 victory over Bumamuru which gave them a place in 2023/24 CAF Confederation Cup. Their first round opponents were Hay al Arab from Sudan, but they were forced to withdraw from the competition due to the war in Sudan, giving Aigle Noir a bye to the next round. Stade Malien from Bamako in Mali were their next opponents and Aigle Noir lost the first leg 0-2 in the Mali capital. The second leg was played in Tanzania and despite a hat-trick from 18 year-old striker Abdi Ineza, the Burundi side exited the competition on away goals after the game finished 3-1.
The Black Eagles went into the match in third place with a 6-1-1 record, but had surprisingly lost in their most recent game, 1-3 at home to lowly Moso Sugar. The other dropped points came in a 1-1 home draw with Flambeau du Centre. They had won all four of their away matches though, including a notable 1-0 victory at Musongati.
Matchday Information
Rukinzo posted their line-up on their Facebook page which helpfully made identification of their players easier. However, no such listing for Aigle Noir appeared to be available on social media. The players’ numbers were available from the matches against Stade Malien, and hopefully there had been no transfers or changes of squad number since those games. However, three of the players involved today did not feature in the Confederation Cup so their identities are currently unknown to me.
Rukinzo were wearing an all blue kit, whilst Aigle Noir wear in a change kit of yellow shirts and socks and black shorts, rather than their usual white and light black stripes.
The Stade Urunani looks to be a tidy stadium with red, yellow and blue seats under a blue roof on the opposite side to the camera. There were what looked to be white plastic chairs for the dignitaries at the back of the stand around the half-way line. Three rows of red terraces were behind each goal, and some spectators were watching in trees behind both goals.
Aigle’s journey for the match was a distance of around 410km, which usually takes 4 and a half hours by road.
The temperature at the 15.00 local kick-off time ( 14.00 in the UK ) was around 27 degrees on a sunny day.
The match was accompanied by a constant noise from the crowd. It would be stretching it to call it music, but the sound of drums, horns and something similar to Vuvuzelas droned on tunelessly throughout the 90 minutes irrespective of events on the field. It was hardly Adam & The Ants Burundi beat !
Match Report
The home side had the first attack after 7 minutes when their lively number 10 Destin Manirho had a shot from the edge of the area deflected for a corner, which was poorly delivered into the side netting.
Aigle Noir responded two minutes later when a low shot from full back Kevin Icoyitungiye was well held by the diving keeper.
Both sides were engaged in a pleasant passing game on the deck with good technical skills as they probed for openings.
Aigle Noir had the edge in the early phases. Icoyitungiye made another prominent run until running into a defender, then Ineza was put clear but blazed the bouncing ball well wide. Forward Saidi Ntakirutimana turned nicely on the edge of the area but could only shoot at keeper Wilondja who made a regulation save. A corner sailed harmlessly across the face of the goal, and with 21 minutes played Kamana’s long-range effort trickled well wide.
For the home side, a nice interchange between Manirho and Mampuya put Nizigiyimana in space on the left but the weak cross was easily cut out. Mampuya then had his back to goal on the edge of the area but his shot on the turn was also straight at the keeper who made a comfortable save.
It was Ruzinko’s turn to have a good spell and they nearly opened the scoring in the 29th minute when Rahim Villa Nsengiyumva’s long range effort crashed against the bar and bounced away to safety. Four minutes later Mampuya sent a free-kick from just outside the area high over the bar. Two minutes later, Nsengiyumva sent a free-kick into the defensive wall.
10 minutes before half-time, a cross-field pass to the left wing found Manirho who made a pacy run inside and skilfully back-heeled but Mpawenimana’s cross was poor and cleared. The impressive Manirho then made another run down the left wing but his cross was too close to the keeper who gathered at his near post.
The games controversial incident came in the 41st minute. Ntakirutimana was brought down inside the area after receiving a pass from the left and bursting through the defensive line. The referee awarded a penalty to the Black Eagles and showed a yellow card to Ndikumana for the foul.
Ineza stepped up to take the spot kick, dummied, restarted and when just about to take the penalty, dummied again by putting his foot over the ball, sending the keeper diving to his right. Wilondja got to his feet and resumed his position and the referee blew his whistle. Ineza carried on an sent the keeper the wrong way but the referee was having none of this.
After a brief discussion with his assistant, he disallowed the goal, showed a yellow card to Ineza and awarded a free-kick to Rukinzo. The Aigle Noir bench predictably went ballistic, as did Ineza, who had to be forcibly restrained from attacking the ref by team-mate Hakizimana. Looking up the laws after the end of the match they state “feinting to kick the ball once the kicker has completed the run-up (feinting in the run-up is permitted); the referee cautions the kicker” so the referee got it exactly right !
At the half-time whistle several of the Aigle Noir players surrounded the referee but they were never going to get the official to change his mind.
Perhaps spurred by the apparent injustice, the visitors started the second half strongly, and a 30-yard shot from Kamana went just over, although the keeper looked to have it covered. After 51 minutes number 27’s pass from close to the by-line reached Karim Kamana just inside the area, and the midfielder side-footed the ball into the far top corner to give Aigle Noir the lead.
The lead lasted only three minutes as Manirho was sent crashing to the floor by the Aigle number 5, who received a yellow card for his troubles. As the keeper dived to his left, Ndikumana tucked the ball into the other corner to level the scores.
A brief flurry of end-to-end play occurred with Aigle keeper Ishimwe coming off his line to dive on the ball ahead of Manirho, and then Icoyitungiye’s low shot from a tight angle produced a fingertip save for a corner. Ndikumana’s cross-cum-shot from the right then forced a tip over the bar by the Aigle Noir guardian.
The match then entered a period of stalemate as both sides probed for openings, then when Ntakirutimana’s free-kick was headed away, Rukinzo swiftly counter-attacked giving Hakizimana little option other than to commit a professional foul to prevent Manirho breaking away.
Along with Manirho, Ndikumana looked to be Rukinzo’s main source of danger, and another run to the by-line ended with a near post cross claimed by Ishimwe.
Aigle Noir full-back Icoyitungiye continued to look lively going forward and sent a low shot across the face of the goal and wide.
Manirho then made a 50 yard run down the left touch-line but lost control, and Aigle Noir number 5 was able to dispossess Manirho
As the game moved into its last 10 minutes the size of the crowd had noticeably increased, presumably with people coming in after work, or perhaps taking advantage of free entry in the second half.
With two minutes left to play, Aigle Noir won a corner, from which substitute Nshimirimana was left unmarked on the 6 yard line to head into the corner for a dramatic late winner. 2-1 to Aigle Noir.
In added on time Rukinzo won a corner, but the delivery was poor and Aigle Noir were quickly on the attack. Bukuru teed up number 27 but his shot struck the outstretched leg of the Rukinzo keeper and flew over the bar for a corner.
The referee blew for full time after 4 added minutes to give Aigle Noir the three points to take them up to second place in the table, although the score graphic on the TV stream refused to acknowledge either of Aigle Noir’s goals and continued to show the score as 1-0 to Rukinzo ! Indeed, the result on Flashscore was initially given as a 1-0 home win, although a couple of hours later it had been corrected.
For the neutral it was a very enjoyable game to watch.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GuA2vx1iI
Rukinzo FC : Wilondja – Ndikuriyo, Nzeyimana, Nuhuza, Nizigiyimana – Ndikumana, Ishimiwe, Nsengiyumva, Mpawenimana, Manirho – Mampuya ( Ntibazonkiza )
Aigle Noir SC de Makamba : Ishimwe – Icoyitungiye, Iradukunda, Hakizimana, Irakoze ( Nshimirimana ) – Iragi, 27 ( Manirakiza ), 5, Kamana – Ntakirutimana ( 23 ), Ineza ( Bukuru )
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