Copa Coca-Cola defending champions Kigoma were yesterday dethroned when Mara defeated them 2-1 in one of the tournament’s last 16 games played at Tanganyika Packers grounds in Dar es Salaam.

 Mara were leading 1-0 until halftime, in the game used to get a team to enter into quarterfinal. The goal was scored in the 21st minute by George Martime.

Israel Daudi added the second for the Lake zone side in the 52nd minute before Kigoma scored the lone goal in the 63rd minute through Hassan Ramadhani.

Mara have qualified for the quarter final match to be played on July 10 at the Karume Memorial Stadium.

Temeke also qualified for the quarters after eliminating Ruvuma in penalty shootouts in another game played at Karume Memorial Stadium in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The teams tied 2-2 in the normal 90 minutes before the referee ordered the game to go into spot kicks.

Friendlies needed for Stars

Having narrowly lost their Nations Cup qualifier to Mozambique recently, Taifa Stars are likely to be largely inactive until the 2014 World Cup qualifiers resume in late August.

 In light of this, the Stars’ new coach, Kim Poulsen, is understandably concerned that his charges might lose their fitness if they largely remain idle until late August.

In an effort then to avoid this, Poulsen has called for at least two international friendly games in a bid to prepare the national team for the important challenges looming large on the horizon.

Seeing as our next 2014 World Cup qualifier is against the fearsome giants, Morocco, we simply cannot afford to be ill-prepared for this game as we would only be setting ourselves up for a veritable humiliation.

Poor preparation would also do little justice to the enormous strides achieved by the Taifa Stars, who caught the eye in their recent defeats to the African powerhouse, Ivory Coast, and Mozambique.

One hopes then, that the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and the wider football fraternity will exert every effort to ensure that the Taifa Stars are thoroughly prepared for the all-important tie against Morocco.

Judging from past evidence though, there is sufficient cause to fear that Taifa Stars will not be ready for the World Cup qualifiers come August.

 This fear stems from our unique failure to prepare for major sporting events, as has been seen in the past.

In fact, we seem not to have learned our mistakes as the build-up to the London Olympic Games demonstrates.

 Impressive sporting feats have been achieved in the past by dint of meticulous preparation and the odds are that if the Stars get enough match practice, they will be ready for the task at hand.

Thus, having missed out on the 2013 Nations Cup, we should earnestly strive to ensure that we will also not be a no-show at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

After all, is it not high time that we stopped being the also-rans and whipping boys at major football events?