As had been widely expected by most soccer pundits, including this columnist, Kilimanjaro Stars were knocked out of the Challenge Cup by hosts, Uganda Cranes.

That defeat on Thursday night last week had been expected given the kind of preparations Kilimanjaro Stars went through before the tournament.

I have times and again insisted in this column that Tanzanian national soccer teams will never win in any tournament as long as they continue doing what they have repeatedly done, namely taking part in regional and international tournaments without playing a series of top-flight friendly matches.

Unfortunately for Tanzanians, this problem is not confined to Tanzania Mainland, it is also a problem that has equally affected our brothers in the isles, the Zanzibar Heroes.

Meanwhile soccer leaders on both sides of the Indian Ocean channel have continued to stick to residential training, ignoring friendly matches and the result has year in and year out remained the same, defeats whatever names we tried to christen such failures; they have remained nothing, but defeats pure and simple!

I’m saying this because when Kilimanjaro Stars went down to their Ugandan counterparts by 0-3, a section of the media described Zanzibar Heroes’ defeat through spot kicks as heroic.

Now let’s face it, what was heroic about that defeat? The word heroic would have made sense if Zanzibar had remained in the tournament.

Yet no one can blame continuous defeats on the coach or the players for the simple reason that Kilimanjaro Stars cannot win a tournament of Challenge Cup’s magnitude through residential training per se.

They need, as we have said repeatedly, a couple of quality friendly matches against other national soccer teams in the continent in order to fine-tune themselves in readiness for such tournaments.

Ugandans and Kenyans have been doing relatively better compared to us because they are not only better focused, but they have also been playing a number of friendly matches against their counterparts from other parts of the continent.

It is actually through such well organised soccer programmes that both countries have presently players abroad who are playing for more better clubs compared to what we have have been doing in the name of professional football.

Our disorganisation at home is such that even getting permission for a Tanzanian player to ply his ware to some third rate club in the continent is becoming increasingly difficult for reasons that are very difficult to understand let alone explain.

When one talks of providing quality friendly matches for Kilimanjaro Stars before the tournament what we actual mean is getting at least three matches which is not all that difficult especially when sponsors shell out funds to the tune of one billion Tanzanian shillings.

Four years ago when Serengeti Breweries, NMB and Tanzania Breweries Limited extended over three billion shillings, we hardly spent the money in friendly matches for Taifa Stars and the result is that we could not got nowhere!

For one Tanzanian national soccer team to play at least one friendly match outside the country, say in South Africa or Egypt, the Tanzanian Football Federation, TFF, would require not less than Sh300m in air return tickets and other expenses.

Therefore for the team to play at least three top-flight friendly matches before taking part say in the Challenge Cup tournament they would require close to one billion shillings.

What this means is that whoever wants to help Kilimanjaro or Taifa Stars ought to channel that assistance in buying return air tickets for the team so that they can play as many friendly matches as possible.

For instance, when Kilimanjaro Stars played Uganda Cranes in the semifinal, our players created a lot of mistakes most of which stemmed from lack of experience at the level they were playing.

At one time the Tanzanian radio commentator said that the middle field was shaky, meaning that there was lack of coordination between players in the sector.

Such problems can only be solved if the team is subjected to as many tough games as possible.

Indeed, through such matches, the coach is able to fix problems which arise instead of doing that during the tournament when the players are supposed to concentrate on winning the game rather than fixing problems here and there.

The number of goals scored against Kilimanjaro Stars last Thursday clearly showed that the team ran out of steam.

Again, our commentator said that the Ugandans were attacking and defending at the same time, meaning that they were playing what is called total football (all attack and all in defence).

But a team cannot employ such a system of play if it lacks stamina, and stamina can only be earned by a team by playing together for a long time and against many, tough opponents and that happens only through friendly matches as opposed to residential training.

Let’s therefore not waste no time complaining over the proverbial spilt milk because we deserved it.

Attilio Tagalile is a Media Consultant and author.

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