AfricaPress-Tanzania: TAIFA Stars Assistant Coach Selemani Matola said minor mistakes displayed by the squad led to their poor start of the unfolding Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Cameroon.
The country’s envoys in the competition suffered a 2-0 loss to Zambia at Limbe Omnisport Stadium on Tuesday hence they face a must win clash against their next opponent Namibia.
Here is where the tricky part of the competition lies such that whoever will be defeated, the chances of going deep into the tournament will be very slim.
Both Taifa Stars and Namibia lost their opening games with the latter succumbing to a 3-0 defeat from Guinea at the same venue and it was the only encounter which produced more goals in the preliminary round of the contest.
As it stands, Guinea lead group D with 3 points while Zambia are second with 3 points as well only to be separated by the former with goal difference. Taifa Stars are third and Namibia bottom-placed winless and point-less.
“We played very well only that minor mistakes we committed were advantageously used by our opponents. We got some chances to equalise like the one missed by Ditram Nchimbi but in the end, the final results was not good to us,” Matola said.
Asked if lack of experience among his players contributed much to the loss, Matola replied: “That is not the reason because each player who was featured had a great match and what we ought to do now is to thoroughly prepare for our next clash.”
On his part, Shomari Kapombe who captained the team on the day narrated that lack of concentration made the Zambians to score two goals but remained adamant of doing well in the next game.
“I believe that the technical bench has identified the weak areas we displayed and will use them to make the team stronger in our upcoming tie so that we can win and revive hopes of sailing into the next round,” Kapombe said.
He added: “In the first half, our performance was great and we dominated the match but, in the second half, we lost concentration thereby enabling them (Zambia) to score two goals. But, the most important thing is to do well in our next battle.”
His teammate Baraka Majogoro was also hopeful that they will turn things around by winning their next encounter to stay on course of reaching into the quarterfinals.
“I am thankful to the coach for trusting me to play in this crucial match of the competition. I hope that my performance in the next game will double so as to stamp the much needed victory,” said the Mtibwa Sugar player.
This happens to be the second time for Taifa Stars to play in the CHAN finals after doing the same in 2009 in Ivory Coast where the country’s flag carriers were also packed in the same group with Zambia.
At the end of group stage matches, Zambia and Senegal qualified into the quarterfinals after attaining 5 points each while Stars finished third with 4 points and the hosts Ivory Coast sat at the base of the log with one point.
