Stars Arrive Safely in Bangui

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Nasongelya Kilyinga

3 June 2011

Bangui — THE national soccer team, Taifa Stars, arrived here safely on Friday ready for their Sunday’s return leg match of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against hosts Central African Republic, who top group D on four points.

Taifa Stars landed at the Bangui Mpoko Airport amid cautious reception from their hosts: Few fans were at the airport while hundred others lined up in the streets booing the visitors, and it only suggests that the going will be tough for Stars come on Sunday.

The Stars, then, went through a light training session yesterday evening as they seek to win the match that will give them a picture on whether they will still be in the race to qualify for the finals 2012 to be jointly be hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon or otherwise.

Vice-president of the Central African Republic football federation Gregoire Zowaye vowed to turn the tide against Tanzania; saying the defeat in the first leg match was hard to fathom.

“It was so painful to concede a goal in the very last minute. We don’t want that to happen here again. We will teach Tanzania a footballing lesson,” he bragged.

Stars revived their hopes of reaching the 2012 Cup of Nations after coming from behind to defeat CAR 2-1 in the first leg match at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on March 26. The victory took the Stars level on four points with the group leaders, CAR.

The Taifa Stars needed a late goal from Mbwana Samata to seal victory, but it was visitors who stunned the home crowd after just two minutes thanks to Mabide Vianney strike. Shabaan Nditi restored hope for the side in the 70th minute when he took advantage of a defensive slip-up.

Samata rose highest in the final minute of the game to power a header beyond the visiting goalkeeper to send the home crowd into raptures. The talisman, who moved from Simba to DR Congo’s TP Mazembe, is in Bangui with the team determined to repeat his feat.

Morocco will face North African rivals Algeria in the group’s other game this weekend. The Fennecs of Algeria spent 12 days in Spain in preparation of their qualifiers against the Atlas Lions of Morocco in Marrakech.

Anyone who looked at Group D after the draw and figured that the 2012 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) race would be dominated by Morocco and Algeria were off the mark.

After three games played, the two favourites from the Maghreb are surprisingly in third and fourth place in a group that includes the Central African Republic and Tanzania, who are ranked first and second, thanks to their superior goal difference.

For the Atlas Lions, their meagre standing is primarily due to their faulty start to Afcon qualifying, when they failed to get past a stubborn Central African Republic team in Rabat.

Some have pointed to Eric Gerets’ late arrival as the main reason for the disappointment, but the players had to face Tanzania without him as well, and came back with all three points from Dar es Salaam.

They then headed to Annaba where they looked offensively inept despite of all their possession against a better-organised and seemingly more motivated Algeria side in Gerets’ first qualifier at the helm.

Now their coach is under a considerable amount of pressure, as a loss in Marrakesh would essentially mean that Morocco would have to rely on favours from other sides in order to qualify and avoid missing a second Afcon in a row. Much like their upcoming opponents,

Algeria stumbled out of the gates of Afcon qualifying when they came from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw against Jan Poulsen’s Tanzania in Blida.

After a rather underwhelming 2010 World Cup campaign during which the team didn’t score a single goal, the result proved to be former Fennecs coach Rabah Saadane’s last game in charge, as he was sacked by the Algerian Football Federation (FAF).

His replacement, Abdelhak Ben Chikha, followed that up with a nightmare start of his own when his men collapsed in the late stages of an away match against the Central African Republic.

The 2-0 loss ended up being a catalyst for the Fennecs, who knew that another letdown against Morocco would not only drop them out of qualifying contention, but would also likely bring Ben Chikha’s time with the national team to an undesired premature end

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