Israel Saria
Even before examining the squad composition of participating teams. Kilimanjaro Stars coaches, particularly the assistant Jamhuri Kihwelo, were catching headlines in domestic media over their team’s prowess.
Kihwelo was quoted as saying there is no reason why the team should not retain the title it has won during the previous edition.
While head coach Charles Boniface maintained composure while working on plans to win matches, Kihwelo bragged of his boys’ prowess as if they have already won the title and the remaining was just a formality.
Football is not like that as underdogs have in several occasions turned tables against the favourites.
Besides the sharp rift between fans who booed their home team, the players’ selection still left much to be desired.
It was well known that midfielder Haruna Moshi is indomitable when it comes to discipline in the team.
Former Taifa Stars coach Brazilian Marcio Maximo and even the Danish Jan Poulsen have failed to contain the player.
Good as he is, Moshi is only useful to his club and not the national team. Player selection should always based not only on how best he/she is on the field but also off the pitch character.
Very possible Moshi might have filled the gap that other strikers would have utilized in the most efficient way.
Out of the 28 players picked during the provisional selection, eight were trashed in the final squad for the Challenge Cup.
Moshi was offloaded by Maximo during the inaugural CHAN championship in Cote d’Ivoire in 2009 on misconduct grounds.
Poulsen tried all his best approach to recall the player last year but all ended in vain.
Who knows for sure how and why Moshi breached his valuable contract in Sweden? How many players are longing to secure such contracts in the country and the success still looks to be a nightmare?
The inclusion of Moshi was in all dimensions a costly gamble that has eventually backfired.
Some players were selected on the basis of playing in foreign leagues without actually assisting their prowess.
Playing in Angola, DRC or Kenya still is not a proper yardstick to gauge a player as suitable for the national team.
This is where the Julios went wrong and found to have a team with prowess based on their historical background. Very possible we would have retained the Challenge Cup without this bunch of players.
The Challenge Cup flop for Tanzania has exposed the weakness of deploying domestic coaches in such assignments. The ‘ushikaji’ habit has backfired and we would always fail if this is the coaching style we bank to use.
The failure has set up a poor and undesirable background for our domestic coaches and this advocates whey we have been failures several times as far as international stages are concerned.
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