Photo: Wayne Rooney, Jonjoe Kenny and Kevin Mirallas meet Maasai Warriors
ENGLISH Premier League side, Everton FC Manager Ronald Koeman has described his charges pre-season tour of Tanzania as memorable and a big success.
The Blues’ first-team squad arrived back
in England after their short trip to Tanzania, where they beat Kenya’s
Gor Mahia 2-1 in a mouthwatering pre-season friendly match at the
National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Thursday.
Wayne Rooney scored a stunning goal in
his return to Everton, but the 16-time Kenya champions Gor Mahia
displayed classic football and Jacques Tayisenge equaliser just three
minutes after Rooney’s opener, with a near post bullet header was a
class touch.
But Kieran Dowell’s second half strike
condemned Gor to the defeat. Speaking about the visit, Koeman said: “It
has been an enjoyable stay. It has been short because of our pre-season
schedule ahead of the Europa League, but I want to thank everyone for
the welcome we have had.
I have really enjoyed my time here. I
enjoyed the intensity of the friendly as well. It has been a positive
trip.” “Overall, I’m happy. It was our first friendly - we saw the
difference in the second half and we created good chances to score more
goals.
“It was a good game but a difficult one,
Gor Mahia made it tough for us. They dropped their intensity a little
bit in the second half and we were the better team with fresh players.
Blues website said the team players and
officials made friends and good memories in Tanzania. Everton’s
first-team squad arrived back in England after their short,
groundbreaking trip to Tanzania.
The players and coaching staff spent
less than 48 hours in Dar es Salaam, but managed to make plenty of new
friends and pack in lots of activities - both on the pitch and in the
local community.
As part of the new partnership with
gaming giant SportPesa, the Club opened up their pre-season fixture
schedule with a friendly against Gor Mahia, becoming the first Premier
League club to play a match in the East African nation.
From meeting a Maasai tribe and cooking
traditional Tanzanian food, to visiting a local school and joining in
with a training session at Albino United. Meanwhile, match-winner Kieran
Dowell is determined to use this pre-season as a chance to stake a
first-team claim.
Dowell was a stand-out performer after
coming on at the break and hit the crossbar from a similar position
before conjuring up his 30-yard winning goal. And having tasted glory
with England at the Under20s World Cup this summer, his next aim is to
break into Koeman’s plans with the Everton first-team.
“It’s good to be playing in front of the
manager and the first team staff and hopefully I can do more stuff like
I did today,” Dowell told evertontv. “When you come back in pre-season
it’s like a clean slate so it’s about getting yourself on the score
sheet and playing well.
“We all got 45 minutes each and it’s
good to get your first game of the season out of the way and it was good
to get my first goal as well. “Before the goal came, I created a few
chances and I thought the team were really productive in the second
half. “Those of us who played in the second half were fortunate because I
thought the Kenyan team got tired as the game went on.
“But it was a good game from the lads.”
Photo: Wayne Rooney and Koeman
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