Samatta looks towards Tanzania rebirth

Tanzania captain Mbwana Samatta believes that his current teammates can lead a renewal of confidence in the Taifa Stars following past continued failures to qualify for Afcon.

The biggest East African nation with an estimated 50 million people last competed at Africa’s premier football competition in 1980 and with the 37-year old jinx, fans have lost faith in the national side and have strengthened their club football affiliation majorly with the giants in Yanga and Simba.

However, a new breed of young, talented and ambitious players could be the answer to Tanzania’s resurrection to spur a rise onto the table of men.

“We have to build the current team and we hope that the fans can believe in us and be patient as we seek to get better every day,” Samatta told supersport.com in an exclusive interview.

Positive results in the past two years have laid the foundation for hope in the Taifa Stars and indeed when they defeated Chad 1-0 in N’Djamena courtesy of a Samatta lone strike in the Afcon 2017 qualifiers, it was not just about the three points.

However, Chad pulled out of the qualifiers and all their results were nullified, a big blow to Tanzania who were already between a rock and a hard place with seven-time African champions Egypt and Nigeria in Group G.

With that performance fresh in their memories and having held the Nigeria Super Eagles to a goalless draw in Dar es Salaam, a debut game for Sunday Oliseh on the touchline, the Taifa Stars have been growing by the day.

A 2-2 draw with Algeria at home and a convincing display despite losing 1-0 to Nigeria in Uyo has created a platform of faith in the current team and Samatta believes it can get better in 2017.

The Belgian-based striker, who features for Genk in the topflight league, has teamed up with the inform duo of Shizza Kichuya (Simba) and Simon Msuva (Yanga) as they look to defeat Botswana and Burundi in friendly games on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.

“Kichuya and Msuva have done extremely well for their clubs and now need to use that confidence to score for the Taifa Stars. We shall work together as a team to try and win these two games and set the pace for the qualifiers,” Samatta explained.

The two games are also a preparation scale for the Taifa Stars as they look ahead at the Afcon 2019 qualifier against Lesotho in June at home.

Thereafter, the locally based players will take on Rwanda home and away in the Chan 2018 qualifiers in July with the winner taking on the winner between Uganda and Somalia/South Sudan