.To play Libya on Friday
TANZANIA'S national football team, Taifa Stars, play Iraq in an international build-up match in Kartepe District, Kocael Province in Turkey this evening.
The Stars are in Turkey where they arrived on Monday afternoon for a week long training camp in preparation for the forthcoming 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Nigeria.
According to reports from Kartepe, the strength-testing match, the first of the two matches Stars have been scheduled to play while in Turkey, will be played under closed doors.
“It is just a friendly match, which is part of our training programme that seeks to gauge our fitness. After this one, we’ll play Libya on Friday,” said Taifa Stars head coach Charles Boniface Mkwasa. Iraq and Libya national teams are accommodated at the same hotel as Taifa Stars -- Green Park Resort Kartepe.
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has opted to send the team to Turkey, a nation straddling Eastern Europe and Western Asia, with a view to giving it the right possible preparations for the visit of Nigeria on September 5.
Stars delegation, which comprises 21 players and seven technical bench officials, is led by TFF Executive Committee member Ahmed Mgoyi. Upon their arrival in Kartepe, Mkwasa’s charges held their first training session on Monday evening for one and a half hours in frosty weather.
They were back in training yesterday morning but rested in the evening ready for today’s match against Iraq. Mkwasa believes that Iraq, which is one of the most successful national teams in the Arab League, having a record win of a total of four Arab Nations Cups, will be a good test for his team.
Iraq is regarded one of the powerhouses on the Asian level, having won the AFC Asian Cup once (2007), the Gold Medal of the Asian Games (1982), three Gulf Cups of Nations (1979, 1984, 1988), and West Asia Championship (2002).
Lions of Mesopotamia as the Iraq national team are nicknamed, have twice won the AFC National Team of the Year award two times (2003 and 2007), being the only team from West Asia to win this award.
Taifa Stars will host former African champions Nigeria early next month with the hosts determined to bounce back from a 3-0 opening defeat away to Egypt. Nigeria, meanwhile, will be seeking to maintain their winning start following a 2-0 triumph over Chad on match-day one.
