Latest news from Tesfa Division A

Tesfa seniors ended the league on 6th place and achieved a great 2nd place in the final cup

Unfortunately, Tesfa seniors did not manage to make history, as they lost the final game in the cup July 26 against Denden. The winner of the cup will participate in a similar cup in East Africa next year, and after beating Adulis and City Center, Tesfa was ready for the big final. However, the game ended 2-1, and a summary of the game is provided by Asmerom below.

Tesfa came to the game with two changes from the team that previously beat Adulis, the 1st choice goalie, Abrham was absent (injured), and the left back Filmon was serving his match ban.The game started with Tesfa having the upper hand and missing some early chances. In the 15th minute of the game Tesfa's mid-fielder Robiel found the net from long range. Like in the last games Tesfa could not hold the ball, instead they started throwing it away easily. This gave the Denden players the needed confidence, and as a result Denden scored an equalizer in 36th minute of the game. Overall, much nervousness was seen from many Tesfa players who were in final for their first time, and halftime ended 1-1.

Suddenly heavy rain started, and just 60 seconds after the whistle was blown for the restart, Tesfa let in a silly goal due to lack of concentration. However, the good thing about Tesfa is that they never give up, and everyone were doing his best against the heavy rain and experienced Denden defenders. As a result, on the 75th minute Tesfa found the net form a corner, but it was cancelled for an unclear reason by the referee (foul/hand ball). Every Tesfa player was rounding the referee and telling their complaints, with no result. To make things worse there was a huge hand ball call missed by the referee on 80th minute of the game, and just on the 85th minute the Tesfa striker, Meron, could not find the net from close range alone with the goal keeper. Overall, Tesfa did not deserve to lose, but on the other hand they did not hit the performance they were showing to reach to the final either. There are many inexperienced lads who have a huge future but not as early as today.

Tesfa has won the first three games of the season

Sunday December 28 Tesfa played thier first Championship game for the season against Denden. Denden is one of the strong teams in Asmara, ranked as number 2 in the last season. Despite meeting a tough opponent, Tesfa played well and made an early goal in the first half of the game by Kibrom. Despite a lot of push from Denden in the second half, Tesfa managed to keep the score and got the first three points of the season.

Tuesday December 30 Tesfa played thier second game of the season, this time against Akria. Tesfa dominated the game from the beginning, showing strenght as a team and some great passes. This led to many chances and two goals, one by Futsom and one by Tekle. In the second half of the game Tesfa struggled a bit to keep up the good play from the first half, but still managed to make another quick goal by Futsum, his second of the game. Unfortunately, some minutes later Akria got a penalty and scored their first goal. For the remaining minutes of the game the play was very uneaven in terms of quality from both sides, however both teams managed to make another goal each, by Daniel in Tesfa, leading to a fantastic end result of 4-2 to Tesfa.

Wednesday January 7, Christmas day in Eritrea, Tesfa won their third game on a row this season. The game was against Maitemenai, last years winner of Division B. In the beninning of the game, Tesfa struggled a bit to keep up the play and let Maitemenai score two quick goals. However, despite the very tough start, Tesfa managed to turn the game around and dominated the remaining of the game. Just before ending the first half Temesghen managed to make the first goal. Thereafter Tesfa continued to push and created several dangerous situations for their opponent. The second breakthrough came in the middle of the second half when Tesfa got a penalty and Kibrum put the ball straight in the corner, impossible for the goalkeeper to catch. Shortly thereafter Filmon managed to make another goal, ending the game 3-2 to Tesfa.

Mokonen Zowde has been assigned as the new coach this season

Mokonen Zowde has recently been assigened as the new coach for the Tesfa Division A team, replacing Jonas and Josef, who from now on will be in charge of coaching the Division B team. Looking at the declining results for the Division A team over the last couple of years, the time was right for a change.

Mokonen is an experienced coach, and has been training Edagahamus for the last 7 years. In addition he has been playing football (left midfielder) for both the teachers club, Hintza and the National Team.

Mokonen is very happy to join Tesfa and has already set clear ambitions for the team. First of all he wants to place Tesfa back among the top 4 teams in Asmara and bring back the fame of Tesfa as a great name in Eritrean football. The road ahead is tough, but his dedication to work hard with the players and his great experience in organizing the practises well, everything is set for sucess. He explains that one of the strengths of the team is the players, who are of a good age to play and have a desire to perform. However, some of the current players have little previous experince from the Division A level, and a challenge going forward will be to increase their confidence. The supporter club are very happy about the new coach and wishes him all the best for the coming season!

Super Division is changing the name to Division A

The new Eritrean Sports Federation has decided to change the name of the divisions in Eritrean football. Starting from the season 2008/2009 the previous Super Division will be renamed Division A, and the previous Division A will be renamed Division B. The change of names, however, will not affect the distribution of the teams in the different leagues. Tesfa's first team will therefore still be participating in the top division, Division A, and the second team in Division B.