Twiga Stars to Open Against Botswana

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

26 June 2011

THE national women soccer team, Twiga Stars, have been pitted against Botswana in their opening fixture of the 2011 COSAFA Women’s Championship to be played in Harare, Zimbabwe from July 2-9.

The southern regional show-piece tournament will feature eight sides, split into two groups of four teams each and the grouping was conducted on Friday, with some fantastic match-ups on the cards.

Defending champions South Africa are the seeded team in Group B and they will play against Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania, with the Twiga Stars receiving a special invitation from COSAFA to take part in the competition.

The hosts were the seeded side in Group A and are pooled with Lesotho, Mozambique and Malawi. The tournament will be played at two venues; the Rufaro Stadium and the Gwanzura Stadium, with South Africa opening the tournament against Zambia at Rufaro on July 2 (kick-off 13:00).

Zimbabwe will play their opening fixture against Lesotho (15:15) at the same venue straight afterwards, while across town Mozambique will play Malawi (13:00) at Gwanzura. After that, the Tanzanian queens, Twiga Stars open their tournament against Botswana (15:15) at the same venue.

Each country will play one another in a round-robin format, with the top two sides in each pool advancing to the semi-finals. The winners in the knockout stages will compete in the Final for the trophy, while the losers will play for bronze in a third-place play-off.

The semifinals will be played on July 7 at the Rufaro Stadium, while the third-place play-off and the final will be on July 9 at the same venue.

Twiga Stars coach Charles Boniface Mkwasa summoned 25 players who moved into residential training camp at Itumbi Hotel in Magomeni area in Dar es Salaam last Friday in preparation for the women’s championship.

Mkwasa will use the tournament to prepare his charges for the All Africa Games due in Mozambique on September, this year. The 2011 event will be the fourth time the COSAFA Women’s Championship has been staged and the first for Tanzania to feature in.

The first was held in Zimbabwe in 2002 and was won by South Africa, who beat their hosts 2-1 in the final. Four years later, the South Africans triumphed again at the finals in Zambia, when they beat Namibia 3-1 in the decider.

South Africa made it three in a row when they beat Zimbabwe in the finals of the 2008 tournament in Malange, Angola.

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