- Tanzania qualified for the World Cup for the first time ever
- The team is training in Southampton, England
- The U17 World Cup will be staged in India
Tanzania’s Serengeti Girls have stepped up preparations in Southampton, England ahead of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022.
The team under the watchful eyes of head coach Bakari Shime settled in well after arriving on Monday and quickly played a friendly match against a Combined U-16 to U-23 Southampton team. The match ended goalless.
Shime says that pitching camp in England is very welcome because it gives the team a good environment to concentrate and also to use good facilities.
The team also played against the Southampton league side, winning 3-0 in a massive morale boosting performance.
“We are doing well in training and everyone is working hard. We are training in very good atmosphere. We are working to look at our weaknesses and improve before we head to the World Cup,” said Serengeti Girls star player Dotto Tossi.
Learnt a lot from the friendly matches
“We have learnt a lot from our hosts and these friendly matches. This is the first time we are ever playing against teams from outside the continent and you could see even from the first match that there were a lot of jitters. But this is the kind of training we needed before heading to the World Cup,” Shime said.
He added; “So far in the last three friendly matches, we have picked up so many lessons and experiences and these will help us as we prepare to play at the World Cup.”
The Serengeti Girls will join 15 other teams including other African representatives Morocco and Nigeria for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup slated for October 11-30th, 2022 in India.
Speaking about the World Cup Shime says they are underdogs because they will be making their first appearance. “We are preparing well so that we go and give a good account. It will also be a good platform for our players to get top exposure with the whole world watching them,” added Coach Shime.
Tanzania are placed in Group D alongside Japan, Canada and France.
Tanzania qualified for the first time ever
Tanzania earned a first ever qualification after flawless performances in the qualification process. They started off with an emphatic 11-0 win over Botswana in the second round, having been given a walkover in the first round.
They won 7-0 at home and 4-0 away with Clara Luvanga scoring five of the 11 goals across both legs. They then played Burundi in the third round, winning 4-0 at home with Luvanga scoring twice. They lost the second leg 2-1, but qualification was already sealed.
They then put up an even more resounding performance in the final round to qualify, after thrashing Cameroon 5-1 on aggregate. They won 4-1 away from home with Luvanga scoring a hattrick before sealing the qualification with a 1-0 victory at home in the return tie played in Zanzibar.
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