Africa-Press – Tanzania. NATIONAL Under-17 ‘Serengeti Boys’ will today play Uganda in the U17 Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) finals at Umuganda Stadium in Rubavu, Rwanda.
The local boys seem to avenge the defeat of their elder brothers, Ngorongoro Heroes they suffered from the Hippos of Uganda in the Cecafa Under-20 Championship held in Arusha recently after losing 1-4 in the finals, though the two teams also secured a place for next year’s Afcon finals to be played in Mauritania.
On reaching the Under-17 final, the two nations (Tanzania and Uganda) have also qualified for the U17 Africa Cup of Nations finals to be played in Morocco. It’s a second consecutive qualification for Uganda; while for Tanzania, it will be the first time for them at the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
More important is the fact that the continental showpiece (Afcon finals) will also act as a qualifier tournament that will decide which African countries will play in the U-17 World Cup. The U-17 local boys sealed a place to the finals after beating Ethiopia by 4-3 post match penalty shoot-out after drawing 1-1 in the regular time of 90 minutes.
Omari Sultan Omari opened the scoring after 38 minutes in favour of the Tanzanians. However, the Ethiopians fought back and managed to equalise in the 71st minute. In the shoot-out, Tanzania converted four penalties while Ethiopia managed to convert three of them.
Uganda also qualified for the finals after defeating Djibouti by a solitary goal in the semi-final played on Sunday. Habibu Omar, who is the head coach of Serengeti Boys stays upbeat that his boys can win the trophy against their opponents. “My boys are in a good morale to face the Ugandans in the finals,’ said Omar.
The country’s governing football body, TFF also showered praise on the local boys for eliminating the Ethiopians to stand behind the team’s mission to win the title. The local boys underwent their final training yesterday to prepare for the match.
Tanzania and Uganda are among title favourites. Their meeting makes a tense final that is unpredictable. Kenya, who were among the favourites, fell in the group stage. They played to a 2-2 draw with Ethiopia before falling 5-0 to Uganda. Hosts Rwanda were also sent home early.
They drew with Djibouti and fell 3-1 to Tanzania after successfully beating Ethiopia in the CECAFA semis at Umuganda Stadium in Rubavu, Rwanda on Monday
