Taifa Stars complete their last and formality Africa Nations Cup qualifier (Afcon) on Saturday when they are expected to take on Morocco in their own backyard.
The Rabat match will officially mark Taifa Stars’ yet another unfortunate exit from the high profile continental soccer tournament.
The exit will be unfortunate because Taifa Stars blew up their chances due to a variety of factors that included, among others, lack of commitment on the part of the players.
In fact the latter problem was made public by none other than a section of the players when they were beaten by a lone goal by their Moroccan counterparts in the first leg match held in Dar es Salaam.
A number of foreign based players complained that they had lost the match despite getting more scoring opportunities than their opponents for lack of commitment and seriousness.
This problem was first raised by players from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a tournament held in Cairo, Egypt.
The Congolese players expressed surprise at the lack of commitment displayed by Tanzanian national players when they went down by 5 goals to one against the Egyptian national team, the Pharaohs.
What surprised DRC players was that instead of feeling sorry for losing, Tanzanian players were smiling whenever they Egyptian pumpued in one goal after another!
In their first match played in Dar es Salaam against the Moroccans a few months ago, Taifa Stars went down by one goal to nil in a match they should have either won or at worst, drawn.
And given the clumsy manner in which they played against the Moroccans, Taifa Stars have absolutely no chance against their counterparts!
The last time Taifa Stars reached the Afcon finals was in 1980 when they beat Zambia to qualify for the tournament held in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Saturday match is a mere formality since Taifa Stars lost their contention in the tournament when they allowed a draw in Dar es Salaam against their Algerian counterparts in a game they should have easily won.
When one looks back to past Afcon qualifiers, no tournament presented Taifa Stars with the best opportunity of making it to the finals than the latest qualifier that ends this Saturday.
To date Taifa Stars have five points won from two draws both against the Algerians and one victory against the Central African Republic, CAR.
Had the Tanzania Football Federation, TFF, invested on the team through provision of a series of top-flight foreign friendly matches, Taifa Stars would have won all their four encounters against Algeria and CAR, hence collecting a total of 12 points.
I have singled out the foregoing two teams because their level of performance was not very much different from that of Taifa Stars.
But the Moroccans were of higher pedigree compared to the three teams although they are quite beatable for a well prepared team.
The collection of the 12 points from Algeria and CAR could have easily landed Taifa Stars in the Afcon finals.
For the doubting Thomas, consider the following: the leader in the group D, Morocco have eight points from as many matches.
The Moroccan position is shared by the CAR who have also bagged in eight points while Algeria have similar number of points with Tanzania, five.
This means that even if the Moroccans win their last game against Taifa Stars, they will still have 11 points, one point less than what Taifa Stars would have had had they beaten Algeria and CAR in all their outings!
The same thing can be said about the CAR. Like the Moroccans they cannot get more than 11 points!
Therefore the TFF’s failure to prepare the team for the tournament has translated into yet another disappointment for the country’s soccer mad fans.
In a nutshell, Taifa Stars’ failure to qualify for the Afcon finals lies in the team’s failure to get as many top flight friendly matches as possible.
In terms of its coaching bench, the team has no problem, especially if one considers the fact that the team’s present coach, Jan Poulsen, was part of the coaching staff that helped the Danish national soccer team win Euro 92!
If one looks around for all the teams that have already qualified for the Afcon finals that include past minnows such as Botswana, one thing that comes out clearly is that apart from having gone through soccer juvenile programs, such teams were subjected to as many top flight friendly matches as possible.
Taifa Stars’ performance in the Afcon qualifier have also been affected by the presence, in the team, of low quality foreign based players.
Indeed, most of the foreign based Tanzanian players except for one or two have had very little impact on the team partly due to the kind of clubs they play for.
Instead of wasting money paying foreign based players’ return air tickets, the money would have been well spent in increasing the players’ allowances.
By Attilio Tagalile
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