Serengeti Girls to kick off World Cup preps on July 20
Tanzania’s Serengeti Girls celebrate after scoring against Cameroon during their first leg of the World Cup qualifiers in Yaounde, Cameroon. Serengeti Girls won 4-1. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- The girls, who will participating in the finals, for the first time face a daunting task in their group, which includes Japan, Canada and France
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s U-17 women’s national team (Serengeti Girls) will start a residential camp ahead of the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup planned for October 11 to 30, this year on July 20 in Dar es Salaam.
Serengeti Girls have been drawn in group D of the event, which will take place in India.
Other teams in the group are Japan, Canada and France. The group’s first match will be played on October 12, according to the fixture.
Speaking yesterday, Serengeti Girls head coach Bakari Shime said the camp will include all players who had been in the team since the start of their qualification campaign.
Shime said all players have been informed about when the camp will start and called on them to report punctually.
“We need to start preparations early because our target is to perform well despite the fact that we are competing in the biggest competition for the first time,” he said.
“Our task is to prove that we have secured the chance after eliminating the so called football giants like Cameroon,” said Shime.
He explained that they have prepared intensive training programmes that by the time the team travels to India, all aspects of the game would be covered.
“We have included all aspect of the game in our training programmes, that also include abroad camp as well as international friendly matches,” he said.
According to Shime, they have already studied their opponents in the group and what remains is to work on various tactics in the forthcoming international friendly matches.
As Tanzania are grouped with the so-called tough teams, Africa’s other representatives, Morocco, are in group A together with hosts, India, the United States and Brazil while group B has Germany, Nigeria, Chile and New Zealand.
Group C comprises Spain, Colombia, Mexico and China.
As per the tournament’s procedures, two teams in each group will qualify for the quarterfinal stage of the competition to be held at three venues namely Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Margao in Goa and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra. Shime also admitted facing strong teams, which, he said, he has started to study. All the teams that have qualified for the competition are strong because they have won on their respective continents. “We need to start preparations as soon as possible because of the huge task we are facing. “As a coach, my first task is to study our opponents and prepare technical plans.
