Football - The national soccer team, Taifa Stars, is expected to jet off for Mozambique this morning ahead of their international friendly match against 'the Mambas' in Maputoon Saturday. The match is meant to inaugurate a new state-of the -art soccer stadium, Estadio do Zimpeta, in the outskirts of Maputo, but for Jan Poulsen's men this would crucially kick-start their month-long groundwork for the African Cup of Nations qualifier against Central African Republic in June. The stadium, the first entirely new sports facility to be built in Mozambique since independence from Portugal in 1975, will be the venue of the 10th All Africa Games due in Mozambique from 3 to 18 September. Mozambique President Armando Guebuza is expected to grace the inauguration ceremony of the stadium which has a sitting capacity of 42,000, with about US 57m/- dollars spent on it.

Taifa Stars will have a short rest after the Mozambique game and then resume camp early next month to prepare for another international friendly against Bafana Bafana to be played in Dar es Salaam on May 14.

They will play their third and probably final friendly against Chad three days later before stepping up preparations for the 2012 AFCON qualifiers' group D return leg encounter against the CAR scheduled for June 4.

Poulsen has summoned 18 players for the Mambas friendly including three goalkeepers namely; Shaban Kado, Juma Kaseja and Shaban Dihile.

Defenders are: Shadrack Nsajigwa, Nadir Haroub (Young Africans), Aggrey Morris (Azam FC), Amir Maftah, Juma Nyoso (Simba) and Kigi Makasi- a Young African left-footed midfielder who has been included as a defender.

Midfielders: Jabir Aziz, Ramadhan Chombo, Nurdin Bakari (Young Africans), Shabani Nditi (Mtibwa Sugar) and Mwinyi Kazimoto (JKT Ruvu), while John Bocco, (Azam FC), Mbwana Samata, Mohamed Banka (Simba), Julius Mrope and Salum Machaku from Mtibwa Sugar form the team's striking force.

Tanzania Daily News/22/04/2011