WELCOME "KARIBU" TO ORANGE FOOTBALL ACADEMY ZANZIBAR

WELCOME "KARIBU" TO ORANGE FOOTBALL ACADEMY ZANZIBAR

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MUDATHIR YAHYA

MUDATHIR YAHYA

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SEIF ABDALLA "karihe"

SEIF ABDALLA "karihe"

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Tuesday 2 June 2009

ALL WHITES TRIO IN DOUBT FOR TANZANIA

June 4, 2009
AUCKLAND – South Africa may have caught Confederations Cup fever but a stomach bug is hampering the All Whites preparations for the tournament ahead of a Thursday morning’s warm-up match against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam.
Captain Tim Brown, defender Tony Lochhead and goalkeeper James Bannatyne have all contracted a stomach bug that has forced them to be isolated from their teammates and could keep them out the match, with Brown the most likely of the trio to be fit.
With Celtic striker Chris Killen and US-based quartet Andy Boyens, Duncan Oughton, Simon Elliott and Jarrod Smith only joining the team in Africa the day before the game, All Whites coaching staff are likely to hold them back until Sunday morning’s match against Botswana.
With Ben Sigmund not expected to be ready for match action until next week’s final warm-up against World Champions Italy, the potential loss of Brown and Lochhead could leave All Whites coach Ricki Herbert with just two outfield players on the bench at Tanzania’s National Stadium.
“It’s never going to be plain sailing from an injury or illness so we just need to work through things,” Herbert said.
“It’ll be a completely different line-up than what we’ll see in the Confederations Cup but great for the players to at least get a game.”
That could mean a debut for seventeen-year-old Chris Wood as the All Whites coaching staff plan to give every member of the 23-man squad time in their first two warm-ups before fielding something resembling a first choice 11 against Italy, just four days ahead of a Confederations Cup opener against Spain on June 15 (NZT).
The All Whites have got used to shaking off disruptions in the past few days after problems with training pitch availability at their Botswana base forced the group into a quick transfer back to Johannesburg, but Herbert said growing excitement about the ‘mini World Cup’ was the overriding emotion in the camp.
“Everyone’s looking good. There’s a nice sense of anticipation of what’s coming up and we’re just trying to balance that emotion with performance now.”
At 104, Tanzania are currently ranked below the All Whites (78) but Herbert is paying more attention to Tanzania’s string of recent results against Africa’s heavyweights.
“We went through some of their results with the players last night, and some of their recent ones have been very good against the likes of Senegal, Ghana and Cameroon – sides that have been in and around World Cups for a while now”
“It’ll certainly be a tough one first up. I think Tanzania are very good physically, strong and quick right throughout the team.”

New Zealand v Tanzania
National Stadium, Dar es Salaam
Wednesday 3 June 4pm (June 4, 1am NZT)

New Zealand squad: 1-Mark PASTON (GK), 2-Aaron SCOTT, 3-Tony LOCHHEAD, 4-Duncan OUGHTON, 5-Ben SIGMUND, 6-Ivan VICELICH, 7-Simon ELLIOTT, 8-Tim BROWN (Captain), 9-Shane SMELTZ, 10-Chris KILLEN, 11-Leo BERTOS, 12-Glen MOSS (GK), 13-Andy BARRON, 14-Jeremy CHRISTIE, 15-Jeremy BROCKIE, 16-Chris JAMES, 17-David MULLIGAN, 18-Andrew BOYENS, 19-Steven OLD, 20-Chris WOOD, 21-Kris BRIGHT, 22-Jarrod SMITH, 23-James BANNATYNE (GK).
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