Tanzania: TFF Lines Up Friendly for Stars

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Majuto Omary

7 June 2011

After their away defeat to Central African Republic on Sunday, the national soccer team, Taifa Stars, will have a few days to nurse the loss before shifting focus to international friendly matches.

Plans are on for Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to organise one high-profile friendly for Jan Poulsen’s team on the FIFA fixed date next month.

TFF secretary general Angetile Osiah said yesterday that three countries are interested in playing Taifa Stars. He named the countries as Qatar, United Arabs Emirates and Seychelles.

“Seychelles want to play Stars at the National Stadium on July 30th, while Qatar and United Arabs Emirates have each proposed that the matches be held at their respective home grounds on August 10, which is the FIFA fixed date,” he said.

“We are still working on the matter. We’ll contact Poulsen (Stars head coach) before naming the team our team should take on,” he added.Taifa Stars were expected to return home last night from Bangui where they tumbled 2-1 to Central African Republic in a return leg math of the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday.

The defeat came as a setback to Taifa Stars’ hopes to make it into the finals to be jointly hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea next year.

Stars, gunning for their first appearance in the Nations Cup finals in three decades, are now placed third in Group D with four points, three adrift of group leaders Morocco and second-placed CAR.

They need not only to win their remaining two qualifiers, but also pray that Morocco and CAR lose theirs.

The group winners, plus best two runners-up in groups “A” to “J”, qualify for the finals along with co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The top two sides in Group ‘K’, which has five teams, will go through automatically, making a total of 16 teams.

Depending with the results in the remaining two matches, the best position Poulsen’s team can finish in their quest is second, with 12 points. To achieve such an accomplishment, Stars will need to win at home against Algeria and away against Morocco in October.But Poulsen has remains confident, saying they are in the race.

AllAfrica – All the Time