Taifa Stars 5-1 demolition at the hands of four times African champions Egypt in a friendly international played in Aswan on Thursday night, left the country’s soccer fans heartbroken.
Though most of the fans expected the defeat based on the highly contrasting standards of the teams, but they have been disappointed with the margin of the defeat.
Losing by such a margin has reminded soccer fans of the team’s poor show during the past when there was no competent coach to train the team.
With Brazilian coach guiding the team yet he is on the payroll heavily supported by the tax payers, it leaves much to be desired.
At least fans expected the team to resist the Egyptian onslaughts if not challenging but not what they saw through their televisions on that saddening Thursday evening.
Stars who have been accorded with almost everything at their disposal, have let down fans at the time when they expected the team to peak and bring shock waves to other teams, Egypt inclusive.
The poor records of Stars against Egypt at international meets has continued to reflect how Tanzania soccer is far from achieving a milestone at international football.
Probably what most of the soccer fans are grumbling about is the poor selection of the players, with highly competent ones being overlooked for reasons not substantial enough.
What did Marcio Maximo expect from goalkeeper Ali Mustafa whose club, Simba rank him second and has never appeared in any of the ten matches since the Mainland premier soccer league kicked off on August 23.
That was termed as technical oversight by some fans who pleaded for anonymity as they swallowed the defeat with deep felt agony.
Hastily prepared Stars brought the brand of disappointment to domestic fans in the most atrocious way, as they were never used to defeats of this gravity since falling to Senegal by 4-0 goals during the 2008 African Nations Cup qualifier duel in Dakar.
The Brazilian coach Maximo might be having the reason for the heavy downfall upon his return next week, but the conspicuous oversight to leave competent players on pretence of misconduct would certainly not meet fans’ satisfaction.
