The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) believes the 2014 World Cup qualifying matches laid good groundwork for the national soccer team, Taifa Stars, ahead of the forthcoming Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Uganda.
TFF Secretary General, Angetile Osiah
The Taifa Stars kicked off training in Dar es Salaam, preparing for the crucial first leg match against Uganda Cranes to be played at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on July 13, this year.
TFF Secretary General Angetile Osiah confirmed that Kim Poulsen’s side will not be involved in any friendly match prior to hosting their regional rivals, the Cranes, at the state-of-the-art stadium.
“I think the World Cup qualifying matches and the preceding friendly matches provided a good preparation for our team ahead of the CHAN qualifiers, there are no friendlies lined up before the game against Uganda,” Osiah said.
He said TFF could not organize build-up matches for the Stars during this close-season when most countries have their national players out on holiday and other teams within and close to the region were taking part in the COSAFA Cup set to get underway in Zambia.
Taifa Stars played against Morocco away and Cote d’Ivoire at home in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers last month, in which the side tumbled to 2-1 and 4-2 defeats respectively.
Prior to their latest setbacks Poulsen’s team had enjoyed a good run which saw them beat former African champions Zambia and Cameroon 1-0 in international friendly matches before thrashing Morocco 3-1 in a first leg tie of the Brazil World Cup qualifiers.
Taifa Stars’ impressive performances in both friendly matches and World Cup qualifiers have made Tanzanians believe their team can repeat the 2009 heroics when it qualified for the inaugural CHAN finals hosted by Ivory Coast.
Reports from Uganda said the Cranes are scheduled to play Iraq in an international friendly in Erbil City, 325km north of the capital Baghdad, in preparation for the coming first leg tie with Tanzania.
FUFA chief executive officer Edgar Watson confirmed the friendly match, saying that it was one of the five requests they had put out for federations to host the team. “We have secured a friendly against Iraq and it will take care of the preparations for CHAN.
FUFA will take care of the expenses together with the Iraq federation,” FUFA CEO Edgar Watson was quoted as saying. It is the second time Uganda will be playing Iraq in a friendly in Baghdad after the first one in 2010 when Uganda won 2-1 away.
The Cranes team will play Iraq on Tuesday and fly direct to Dar es Salam for the CHAN fixture. Cranes head coach Mulitin ‘Micho’ Sredejovic is preparing his youthful side to approach their encounter against Tanzania with utmost composure.
The Cranes are due to go into residential training today. As Micho polishes the team, he warned URA trio of striker Saidi Kyeyune, midfielder Owen Kasule and Frank Kalanda and; Hashim Sempala, who joined the squad on Wednesday morning to prove their worth to be part of the 25-man squad.
The trio joined training after their return from the CECAFA Kagame Cup campaign in Darfur, Sudan. Taifa Stars were drawn to play the Cranes in the Central-East zone and the aggregate winner over the two legs will join other qualifying nations from North and West A zones (3 each), West B, Central, Central-East and Southern zones (3 each) and the host nation to make it 16 nations in the third edition of this tourney to be held in South Africa next year. The CHAN tournament is held every two years, alternating with the African Cup of Nations.
The qualifying phase has taken place every even year and the final every odd year. From now on it has swapped years with the Africa Cup of Nations. Tunisia are the defending Champions, having beaten Angola 3-0 in Khartoum. DR Congo won the inaugural edition held in Ivory Coast, where they beat Ghana 2-0 in 2009.
Source Tanzania Daily News
