Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: women’s team Head Coach, Bakari Shime said he will use the 2020 Cosafa Women’s Cup to weigh up his side ahead of the African Under-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers match against Senegal.
The country’s women team, which is already on the ground polishing up, will compete in the Cosafa competitions as a guest side in the event slated to begin from November 3rd to 14th this year at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in South Africa.
Tanzania will field two teams during the event with one side being the senior women’s team while the other is the U-17 squad which will compete in Under-17 girls’ championship set to unfold from November 5th to 14th at the same venue.
However, speaking yesterday in the city, Shime insisted that the South Africa mission will be a good test for his squad before the World Cup qualifiers.
“This will surely be our best chance to assess our team prior to the tense world cup qualifiers whose exact date to begin unfolding is yet to be announced.
“We have been in camp since September 22nd this year with the main purpose to let the players gain the required rhythm as they stayed for a long time without engaging themselves in football,” noted Shime.
He added that they have managed to source some players from the Women’s Premier League, which was introduced in the country last year.
“We got some players from the women’s league but our tradition is that we do not frequently select new players whenever the national team is named because we want to create a long term consistence squad,” Shime narrated.
Hosts South Africa will compete along with Angola, Botswana, Comoros Islands, Malawi, Zambia Zimbabwe, and the invited team Tanzania.
The group stage draw for both championships will be held on October 20th (today) and the eight participating teams will be split into two groups of four and they will challenge for a place in the semi-finals.
South Africa are defending champions of the tournament, having won a record sixth crown and third in a row, following a 1-0 final victory over Zambia in August last year.
In the Under-17 category, the six teams to feature are: Botswana, Comoros, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South African.
Guests Uganda were the winners of the maiden edition last year in Mauritius, following a 2-1 victory over South Africa.
