Sports

Heroes face Junior Wasps in friendly

Boniface Wambura

THE national Under-20 soccer team, Ngorongoro Heroes, will take on their Rwandan counterparts, the Junior Wasps, in an international friendly at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Monday afternoon.

The team is preparing for the first leg of the 2013 Africa Youth Championship qualifier against the Flying Eagles of Nigeria slated for July 29 at the National Stadium.

The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer Boniface Wambura said in the city that Rwandan team is already in the country and all preparations for today's game are complete.

He revealed the match's entrance fees as 2,000/- for each of the Orange, Blue and Green seats, while tickets for VIP B and C area will be pegged at 5,000/- each and those who would like to sit at VIP A area will have to pay 10,000/- for a single ticket.

Ngorongoro Heroes reached the second round of the U-20 African Nations Cup (AFCON) Qualifiers after dispatching Sudan in the first round. Heroes thrashed Sudan 3-1 in the first leg match played at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam before losing to the latter 2-1 in the return leg and progressed to the second round with 4-3 goals aggregate.

Thomas Ulimwengu, Ramadhan Singano and Simon Msuva were on target for Heroes in the first leg match and Ulimwengu, who plays professional soccer for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s giants, TP Mazembe, scored a crucial consolation goal in the return leg match in Khartoum to realize Heroes' qualification for the next stage.

However, Jacob Michelsen's side face an uphill task against the Flying Eagles, who have most of their players playing professional football in Europe, but yet, it is another opportunity for the Tanzanian youngsters to try and go a step further in the qualifiers after being eliminated by Cote d'Ivoire in the same round during the 2010 qualifiers.

Despite displaying some good football in 2010, the Heroes had their hopes of reaching the first ever African Youth finals dashed after settling to a 1-1 draw with the Ivorians in their return leg match. The Heroes lost 1-0 in Abidjan in the first leg tie and needed nothing short of a clear victory against the 'Junior Elephants' at home, but fluffed the home advantage with a draw.

Seven teams will qualify to join hosts Algeria for the 2013 Africa Youth Championships finals tournament from where the best four qualify for the World U-20 Championships scheduled for June 2013 in Turkey.