Tanzania coach Poulsen

Tanzania coach, Jan Poulsen, has named a 23-man squad for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Morocco including five new faces.

The Dane made a surprise call up of Simba’s Mohamed Banka who despite a glittering career at Young Africans failed to impress the former coach, Marcio Maximo.

Other new faces include; Majimaji shot stopper Said Mohamed, striker Salum Machaku (Mtibwa Sugar), defenders Haruna Shamte (Simba) and Salmin Kiss (Police Tanzania).

However, the team, which goes to camp on Thursday, will be without Abdi Kassim who has been dropped after failing to shrug off his niggling knee injury.

“Kassim told me he would start training next week, that’s too late given that he won’t be match fit, so I decided to leave him out,” said Poulsen.

The Zanzibar-born forward scored in Algiers to inspire Taifa Stars to a supremely crucial 1-1 draw against the Desert Foxes.

The national team will entertain the Atlas Lions on October 9 at the 60,000-seater National Stadium.

Poulsen said Shamte and Kiss were future replacements of Shadrack Nsajigwa, thus he included them to help them gain experience.

The coach also axed Azam goalie Jackson Chove because he has was not a regular starter for the ice-cream makers.

Other players who failed to win the call-up are Salum Kanoni, Uhuru Seleman, Jerry Tegete, Juma Jabu, Kelvin Yondani and Athumani Iddi.

According to the Danish tactician, the squad would be trimmed to 18 a few days before the encounter.

Tanzania squad:

Goalkeepers: Shaaban Hassan Kado (Mtibwa), Juma Kaseja (Simba), Said Mohamed (Majimaji).

Defenders: Shadrack Nsajigwa, Stephano Mwasika (Yanga), Haruna Shamte (Simba), Salmin Kiss (Police), Nadir Haroub (Yanga), Aggrey Morris, Erasto Nyoni (Azam).

Midfielders: Nurdin Bakari, (Yanga), Shaaban Nditi, Salum Machaku (Mtibwa), Jabir Aziz, Seleman Kassim (Azam), Idrissa Rajab (Sofapaka), Henry Joseph (Kongsvinger), Nizar Khalfan (Vancouver Whitecaps).

Strikers: Danny Mrwanda (DT Long AN, Vietnam), Mrisho Ngassa, John Bocco (Azam), Mussa Hassan, Mohamed Banka (Simba).