As had been widely expected, Taifa Stars are out of the run for Africa Cup of Nations finals (AFCON) after being held to a one all draw by their Algerian counterparts, the Desert Warriors.
A few weeks ago, I noted in these columns, that it was just a matter of time before Taifa Stars are booted out of the Afcon qualifications for lack of down to earth preparations for the team.
My argument was very simple; the team cannot get anyway as long as it not given top-flight international friendly matches.
Indeed, much as the coach has all credentials for training and managing Taifa Stars, but that was not enough.
The team required top-flight international friendly matches that would, among others, inculcate self-belief on the players.
Interestingly, whenever the Tanzania Football Federation, TFF, came up with a possible date and name of the country Taifa Stars were supposed to play against, within days of such announcement, the game fell through for a variety of reasons!
And by the time the national soccer team took on the Algerians on Saturday, they had not played any quality friendly match against any team!
Yet curiously, some people, and that include the TFF (otherwise they would not have allowed the team to play) still nursed hopes that Taifa Stars could pull out something from the game!
In fact, Taifa Stars one all draw against the Algerians was not a result of training the team underwent at the hands of the Danish coach, Poulsen, but rather due to contribution made by players who are presently playing outside the country where football is taken more seriously!
Yet it would be utterly wrong for anyone to blame the Danish coach for Taifa Stars’ woes.
As I had occasion to point out in my last article, experience in other countries that include Bafana Bafana (the boys) of South Africa, shows that one of the best routes to success is through subjecting a national soccer team in a series of top-flight friendly matches.
The South Africans bagged their first Afcon in 1996 in Johannesburg after playing over 60 international friendly matches against some of the best national soccer teams in the world in a less than three years.
And by the time the tournament resumed in January 1996, Bafana Bafana was the best prepared national team in the tournament.
It is through international friendly matches that players get used to one another apart from affording the coach the opportunity of noting down his players’ problems and hence correcting them.
Secondly, constant international friendly matches against good teams at home and abroad help in giving the players confidence.
The players eventually get used to playing under different atmosphere that include hostile foreign crowds.
However, the problem with soccer managers in this country is that they sit at home, expecting somebody somewhere to provide friendly matches for them!
In short, they don’t look for friendly matches, and that is why when the so called Fifa (federation of international football association) agent failed to produce return tickets for the team in the planned friendly match against North Sudan, all fell in a heap!
The question is for how long are soccer fathers in this country going to wait for the proverbial manna?
In fact, if there is any time that Tanzania had the golden opportunity of qualifying for the Afcon finals but blew away its chance, it is this time.
Consider the following: Taifa Stars should have won both matches against the Algerians, something that would have given them a cool six points!
The other match Taifa Stars should have won on account of playing at home was the game against Morocco.
That match would have have given them three points, and by last Saturday, they could have had nine points in their kitty.
The rest could have been taken care of by other factors that include the draw between Central African Republic and Morocco over the weekend!
According to journalists who accompanied Taifa Stars in their away match against Central African team, the Tanzanians should have wrapped up that game.
However, lack of commitment on the part of the players led to their defeat in the dying minutes of the game.
Talking about lack of commitment, this problem is no longer in doubt. Some local journalists have raised this problem in the past, but now the issue has been taken up by players themselves.
For instance, in one of the local English dailies, Henry Joseph was quoted as expressing his disappointment over the results.
He blamed himself along with his colleagues for failing to make use of the numerous scoring opportunities that came their way during the match.
Had the team been given even ten quality international friendly matches as part of their preparations for the tournament, Taifa Stars would have done better.
However, when one looks critically at the performance of our team, at the end of the day it is nothing but a reflection of our socio-economic performance!
By Attilio Tagalile
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