Tanzania, Uganda battle for ascendancy in2023 AFCON Qualifiers Group F

24Mar 2023
Michael Mwebe
Sport
The Guardian
Tanzania, Uganda battle for ascendancy in2023 AFCON Qualifiers Group F

TANZANIA’s senior national soccer team, Taifa Stars, faces an uphill battle when the squad takes on Uganda in a Group F clash of 2023 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers at the Suez Canal Authority Stadium in Ismaily in Egypt this afternoon, with kick-off slated for 5 pm.

Players making Tanzania's senior national soccer team, Taifa Stars, chat with their coaches after a training session in Egypt on Tuesday when shaping up for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers' Group F tie against Uganda that takes place in Ismailia today. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TANZANIA FOOTBALL FEDERATION

This match is a home fixture for Uganda's Cranes but is played in Egypt because of a lack of an approved venue in the East African country. Both teams are yet to win a game in two rounds of fixtures.

Neither Taifa Stars nor Uganda's Cranes qualified for the last AFCON finals hosted by Cameroon last year, meaning a place in the 2023 AFCON finals is a major priority for both.

Taifa Stars are still stinging from their last competitive outing – a 3-0 defeat to Uganda in Kampala in August 2022- that denied the former a chance to make it to the 2022 CHAN finals played in Algeria early this year.

While Uganda has had Serbian Milutin Sredojević, simply known as ‘Micho’, in charge of their team for the last three years, Tanzania will see this match as the start of a new era under the tutelage of Adel Amrouche.

The Belgo-Algerian coach is starting his spell in charge of Taifa Stars and immediately faces a huge challenge in overseeing an attempted return to the AFCON.

The teams’ most recent meeting came in an international friendly, with Tanzania claiming a 1-0 win – thanks to Simon Msuva's first-half strike in Benghazi in October last year.

Yet Amrouche and Taifa Stars would be foolish to expect a repeat- certainly not without some serious hard work and the odd slice of luck.

And this Uganda team is far improved from the one Tanzania faced in the friendly and CHAN qualifiers, with the addition of several overseas-based professionals and the experienced legs of Emmanuel Okwi, Joseph Ochaya, Farouk Miya, and Jamal Salim.

Uganda's Cranes come into this match on the back of a disappointing 2022 CHAN campaign.

Having picked up a point in a 0-0 draw with DR Congo in their opening fixture and a 1-0 win over eventual champions Senegal, Micho's troops did not prove their worth in their last group match against Ivory Coast and fell apart in the final moments to lose 3-1.

In head-to-head stats, Uganda has generally bossed Tanzania in international football, with the Cranes claiming four victories compared to just one for Taifa Stars in the last five official meetings.

The other matchday three fixture in Group F will see big guns, Algeria, host Niger at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.

Algeria topped Group F with six points from victories in ties against Uganda and Tanzania.

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