The Etienne Ndayigarije-led charges are preparing to play Tunisia in a 2021 Afcon qualifier
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has confirmed the Taifa Stars will host Burundi in an international friendly game on October 11.
The two teams are preparing for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in November and will use the game to gauge their players. The Federation has further revealed the national team squad will be named early next month.
“The Tanzania national team Taifa Stars will play an international friendly match falling under the Fifa calendar on October 11, 2020, from 4 pm at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, Dar es Salaam,” TFF said in a statement obtained by Goal.
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“Taifa Stars head coach Etienne Ndayiragije will name his squad on October 2.”
Ndayiragije said in an initial interview that he is focused on checking the individual skills of local players in the Mainland Premier League to help him build a strong national team.
The Burundian revealed he is already satisfied with the performances of players in the top-flight since it resumed on June 13, but maintained his main focus now was on individual development.
“As you know, most of the teams which are doing well in the country have a mixture of foreign-based players as such, for me, I cannot hail the success of the entire team but rather how Tanzanians in such teams are performing,” the former Azam FC coach said.
“I congratulate Simba for being the champions but my concern is not on them but the work rate of domestic players in the team.”
The East Africa nation is scheduled to play Tunisia on November 9 before hosting them in Dar es Salaam eight days later.
The Taifa Stars started their campaign in Group J with a 2-1 win against Equatorial Guinea before falling by the same margin away to Libya.
Tunisia have a 100% winning record and are topping the group with six points, twice as many as Libya and Taifa Stars, who are in the second and third places, respectively. Equatorial Guinea are bottom of the group with no points.
The first two teams will play in the next Afcon to be held in Cameroon.
