NEW evidence has been unearthed, if there was need for any, that names count in life, for either good or worse, such that Tanzania’s senior national soccer side head coach Hemed Suleiman, who, for some reason in the past, took the nickname of Morocco, has lived up to that legacy.

He has, without doubt, emerged as one of the country’s memorable national side coaches, taking the side to the quarterfinal stage of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2024- a tournament for home-based players.

In doing so, Suleiman (pictured) also appears to have lived up to the talismanic pointer that his nickname portends, for he took over as caretaker coach after a match with the same opponent.

On the basis of the place that Tanzania occupies in African football, along with our close neighbours and co-hosts of the belated CHAN 2024 finals, chances that the coach - or another coach- if appointing powers decide to try someone else, reach that record and eclipse it in the next 10 years are either poor or close to nil.

The predominant trend in African soccer and, to an extent, the World Cup- in short, soccer generally – is one of rise and decline, not rise and rise, in which case the main powerhouses will replace one another on who wins continental titles, and the others, who come next in each round. Reaching the CHAN semi-finals is still far off.

 What this implies is that even if he remains in his post, and seeks to build on where the side has reached, chances of going beyond the current achievement with a home crowd to add to will not be easy.

 Countries like either the DRC or Zambia, not to speak of either Ghana or Nigeria, have tasted great fortunes in these tournaments, but they are not always coming on top, as it needs plenty of talent backup and club strength to be assured of a super national side that can predictably achieve great things in a regular manner.

Brazil was, at one stage or for at least two decades, the team to beat in the FIFA World Cup, but it did not last too long; it later crumbled.

A curious news dispatch that the then Tanzania's senior national side head coach, Belgo-Algerian Adel Amrouche, had been suspended at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), played in Ivory Coast in January 2024, for insulting the Moroccan federation, and CAF, for supposed foul play in favour of Morocco in the AFCON, started the current coach’s career with the team.

Amrouche was suspended from the finals, where Tanzania still had two matches to play, after losing 3-0 in their opening game at the tournament, whereupon Amrouche lost his cool.

The two neighbours, Algeria and Morocco, have their often bitter episodes in North Africa, and pundits believe this was the source of his remarks, as no one remembered what precisely led to his remarks or insults.

It is understood that the match against Morocco was the clincher to the need for a new coach, not on the part of the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), which would at least have waited until the end of the tournament to make up its mind on the coach’s tenure.

 His instinctive reaction to a Taifa Stars hiding by Algeria’s bitter rivals, touching a raw nerve, was to suspect foul play, unaware that in obtaining a CAF ‘red card’ he eased the way not just for TFF not to have to dwell on the matter too soon, but also pave the way for national side assistant coach, Suleiman, to take the helm.

What was not readily admitted at the time is that his (Suleiman's) techniques were superior by comparison.

 In the match against Morocco, Taifa Stars played in a totally defensive ‘parking the bus’ method that is far too sterile to attract club leaderships around the top premier leagues, though it is too often identified with legend Jose Mourinho, the combative Portuguese coach who has won the UEFA Champions League twice with different clubs.

What the Tanzanian coach did was to discard ‘parking the bus’ method and instead adopt a 4-3-3 plan where the first two lines are basically defensive, which enabled the side to take the game to the other side and did well in encounters first with Zambia and then with DRC, with a win and then with a draw, not a loss.

It is unlikely the results would have been obtained had the ‘parking the bus’ mood been retained.

 It can be said that the national side coach, Suleiman, who came into the side not by succession but by default, has been improving on that method since the start, upwards of 19 months in the job, up to reaching the quarterfinals of the modified tournament.

Chances of doing as much in the coming tourneys, now that he has consolidated his position as coach, are mild, if not altogether absent, and, psychologically, he ought to start thinking of himself as on his way out, as this is the best he could presumably achieve.

With the African Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers, his side will only be slightly changed; opponents will have better sides than they fielded for CHAN.

What is also evident is that local soccer pundits will have run out of advisories on what either the national side can do or what methods the coach can adopt, as, at any rate, he proved them wrong earlier, and took up perhaps the best methods that could be designed.

 His defence-minded setting pruned to the minimum the goals other teams can score against Taifa Stars, while retaining leverage to move forward and seek out the opponents’ defences, quite often to suitable results.

The trouble is that having reached the peak with this tournament, and being at home as the best possible environment to go higher, and then fail, will stretch his nerves, and then a lack of ambition starts being visible on the pitch. It will just be time for TFF to try someone else.