Israel Saria
After almost two weeks of training the national soccer team coach Kim Poulsen has been worried by the player’s fitness ahead of travelling to Abidjan tomorrow.
The Danish coach who took over from his name sake early this month, bemoaned a short stay he had with the players which he said is insufficient to deal with the fitness shortfall.
However, he said there is a need to communicate with coaches of the premiership clubs where the players spend most of their football playing career.
Despite the shortfall, Poulsen said the team is still promising and are travelling to Abidjan not as underdogs.
“We have a good team and hopefully it might sparkle regardless of the gravity of our opponents”, said the coach who has won promotion from the under 20 side into the senior team in his newest contractual terms.
Taifa Stars as the team is known for decades would board Abidjan-bound flight tomorrow ahead of their first leg tie of the 2014 World Cup qualifier series against the host nation.
Poulsen says he would leave with all players who have been training with the team with the exception of midfielder Nurdin Bakari and striker Thomas Ulimwengu.
While Bakari is yet to gain full fitness, Ulimwengu who was also on the sick bay for a number of days will join the youth team.
Unlike other Stars’ coaches in the past, Poulsen would leave with all the 23 players as he says no one has a permanent place in the first choice line-up.
The full line up of players and their respective clubs in bracket are as follows;
Goalkeepers: Juma Kaseja (Simba), Mwadini Ally (Azam) and Deogratius Munishi (Mtibwa Sugar).
Defenders are: Nassor Masoud, Shomari Kapombe, Juma Nyoso, Amir Maftah, Kelvin Yondani (Simba), Aggrey Morris Erasto Nyoni and Waziri Salum (Azam).
Midfielders are: Mwinyi Kazimoto, Jonas Mkude and Edward Christopher (Simba), Salum Aboubakar and Mrisho Ngasa (Azam), Shabani Nditi (Mtibwa Sugar) and Frank Domayo (JKT Ruvu U-20).
Strikers are: Mbwana Samata (TP Mazembe, Ramadhan Singano (Simba U-20), Simon Msuva (Moro United- U-20), Haruna Moshi (Simba) and John Bocco (Azam).
Stars now relish Tanzania Breweries sponsorship under their Kilimanjaro Beer brand.
The team played a friendly tie against Malawi on May 26 at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam that ended in barren draw.
Tanzania has never qualified to play at the football’s high profile global stage ever since. The team shares the group together with Gambia and Morocco.
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