Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA Football Federation (TFF) has made slight changes to the senior team ‘Taifa Stars’ technical bench by picking Shadrack Nsajigwa as the right hand man to Head Coach Kim Poulsen.
The former Young Africans player has therefore replaced Juma Mgunda and Selemani Matola who used to parade as assistant coaches to Poulsen before the amendments.
Also, the renowned shot stopper Ivo Mapunda has been hired as Taifa Stars goalkeeping coach while Nadir Haroub remain the team’s manager, Dr Lisobine Kisongo (Team Doctor), Dr Gilbert Kigadye (Physical Doctor), Elieneza Nsanzanzeru (Physical Trainer) whereas John Mashaka and Ally Ruvu are equipment keepers.
Taifa Stars are set to pitch camp soon to begin drills prior to facing DR Congo and Madagascar on September 4th and 7th in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers whose finals will be staged next year in Qatar.
The country’s envoys will begin their campaign away by taking on DR Congo before hosting Madagascar at the giant Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam on September 7th.
Stars are packed in Group J of the qualifiers alongside Benin, Madagascar and DR Congo where each team will be battling for the available five slots for Africa teams in the world cup finals.
To penetrate into the group stage of the qualifiers, Taifa Stars defeated Burundi and this will be another chance for the incumbent coach Poulsen to make history of becoming the first trainer to send Stars to the world cup finals.
Poulsen who replaced Etienne Ndayiragije at the helm of the senior team has already made a big impact on the country’s football circles after guiding the Under-23 side to clinch the 2021 CECAFA Challenge Cup in Ethiopia recently.
The stamped CECAFA success is a big boost for him ahead of the upcoming two crucial world cup qualifiers since it has given him and some players the required confidence to do well.
Also, some of the players who were featured in the CECAFA contest will possibly get a call up in the senior team squad ahead of the upcoming two fixtures. Playing at least two friendly matches before traveling to DR Congo can have a positive effect for the team bearing in mind that their opponents are equally good and will be looking to use well the home ground advantage.
As usual, when Tanzania square off against DR Congo, the game is always red hot regardless if it is a friendly duel or not. However, Taifa Stars failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Cameroon from Group J, with Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea taking the top two positions.
Taifa Stars finished third in the group while Libya occupied the bottom place as the two sides missed the opportunity to make it to Cameroon as such; this is a great platform for Stars to make a big mark in football circle.
Tanzania joined neighbours Uganda and Kenya who also failed to make the cut to Cameroon for the AFCON feast with Uganda losing 1-0 to Malawi which dashed their hopes to cruise through.
