Tanzania: Taifa Stars to Play in Ramallah

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

15 July 2011

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer, Boniface Wambura, said the match is one of two international friendlies earmarked for Stars to prepare the squad for continental assignments.

Stars will then play Jordan in Amman on August 13 and the former’s squad is expected to travel to the Middle East on August 7 for the two friendly matches.

Wambura said Stars’ match against Palestine follows an invitation from the latter and the game will be played within international friendly matches’ dates set by the world soccer governing body, FIFA.

Palestine will be playing Stars for the second time in a competitive international friendly match after the two teams met in Dar es Salaam in February, last year, in which the hosts won 1-0.

The second half goal scored by striker, Mrisho Ngasa, saw Stars edge the visitors in the historic match played at the National Stadium to mark a rather new, interesting era for the Palestinians, who are struggling to stamp their mark in competitive international soccer.

Wambura said Stars’ head coach, Jan Poulsen, who is currently on holiday in Denmark, is expected back in Dar es Salaam on the first week of next month and will announce the squad for the two matches the same week.

The TFF official hinted that Stars have been forced to play modest opponents in international friendly matches because of difficulties accompanying the process of securing high profile friendlies with any of the world soccer giants.

He said a good number of the world’s soccer powerhouses do not fancy playing minnows in international friendly matches for fear of plunging in FIFA rankings should the latter lose in the games.

The powerhouses’ tendency to set up huge appearance fee before featuring in international friendly matches turns out to be one of several other factors hindering Stars’ plans to secure the much needed competitive games.

“We, instead, do not encounter much cost when playing modest opponents. Poulsen has indeed been insisting on playing highly ranked national sides but, unfortunately, we can not manage at present,” said Wambura.

The two friendly matches are expected to serve as crucial build up for Stars ahead of the remaining 2012 African Nations Cup qualifiers against Algeria at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on either September 2, 3 or 4 and the final group match D against away against Morocco on October 7-9.

Meanwhile, the national women soccer team, Twiga Stars, will open their campaign in the 10th All Africa Games finals by playing Ghana in Maputo, Mozambique, it has been established. Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) information officer, Boniface Wambura, confirmed that Ghana are Twiga’s first opponent in the event, before the Tanzanian ladies meet South Africa a few days later.

Twiga Stars are in group B of the women soccer event together with Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, a pairing that has so far been termed as “the group of death”. Twiga Stars’ head coach, Charles Boniface Mkwasa, had already voiced optimism on his team’s ability to command an impressive spell in the event despite facing tougher opponents.

Mkwasa said Twiga will bank on the experience they got from facing both South Africa and Zimbabwe in the recent Council of South African Football Association (Cosafa) Women Championship held in Zimbabwe.

Twiga also met the two teams in previous Women AFCON qualifiers with the Southern African opponents winning convincingly.

AllAfrica – All the Time