Poulsen: Danish coach explains why Tanzania lost to Kenya

Tanzania head coach Kim Poulsen believes his charges were punished for a slow start in the 2-1 defeat against their hosts Kenya in an international friendly at Nyayo Stadium on Monday.

Erick Kapaito and Abdalla Hassan scored to ensure the Harambee Stars registered a second consecutive win after beating South Sudan 1-0 in the initial friendly. Ayub Lyanga scored the only goal for the Taifa Stars, who have engaged in their first test game ahead of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The Danish believes the game exposed his team and as a result, he knows where he will be working on. 

"Thanks Harambee Stars for the game, they gave us a good fight," Poulsen told Goal .

"For me as a coach, it was an interesting game because it gave me a clear picture of areas to work on. It was very clear, the way we started the game was very slow especially for the first 25 minutes. We were very passive; I wanted us to be more active.

"The headline was on the way we defended, we made so many individual mistakes. So we have some work to do to strengthen our defence; the backline gave away too many chances and I cannot complain about Kenya winning because it was well deserved."

The 61-year-old insists the team is preparing for the upcoming matches against Equatorial Guinea and Libya and he is still analysing his players. 

"It is good because we are still in preparations and we are analysing who can cope with this level and who cannot," Poulsen added.

"Some of these players will join the team for the Afcon [qualifiers] but a number of them will not be there because we are expecting Simba SC players and foreign-based ones to join us.

[The game against Kenya] was a good picture, now we have something to work on and in two day's time we will be ready for Harambee Stars again."

The Taifa Stars are in Group J for the race to Cameroon with four points from as many matches and need maximum points in their remaining games to seal their place in the finals. 

Leaders Tunisia have already sealed their place in Afcon after collecting 10 points from the four games they have played.

Equatorial Guinea are placed in second position with six points while Libya sit bottom of the table with three points.