AfricaPress-Tanzania: AFTER stepping one feet into the 2021 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations (BSAFCON) finals, Head Coach for the country’s Beach soccer side Boniface Pawasa has urged his boys not to relax for the return leg. His sentiments came after navigating the team to a heavy 8-3 win over Burundi in the first leg of the BSAFCON qualifiers at Coco Beach in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday in the second leg battle whose overall winner will earn a ticket to play at BSAFCON slated to begin from May 23rd to 29th in Dakar, Senegal. However, briefing reporters after the game, Pawasa narrated that though they won, he was not entirely impressed with the way his charges played.
“It is good that we have won but I am not completely happy with the way we played because I expected to win the match with big margin to simplify the second leg battle.
“The way we trained could have made us big winners today (Tuesday) but, all in all, we need not to relax much because Burundi are a competitive team who never give up easily,” he said.
In the same token, the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) president Wallace Karia said time has come for Beach soccer to be played across the country to promote the game.
“Beach soccer is not a new sport in the country as our team has been competing in various tournaments of the contest. As such, if possible, let club leaders establish Beach soccer teams so that in the end, we can introduce a Beach soccer league. “Our colleagues in Zanzibar already have a competitive Beach soccer league and some of their players are included in our Beach soccer team.
“Our target is to encourage many youth players in the country to love Beach soccer so that they can be picked and included in the senior team to fight for their country,” he said.
