Dar Es Salaam — THE national soccer team, Taifa Stars, is set for a big test on August 11 when they will play Africa Champions, Pharahos of Egypt in a friendly encounter in Cairo.

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer, Florian Kaijage told reporters on Friday that the match is in line with the world soccer governing body, FIFA calendar.

The match would be the first test for the new Taifa Stars coach, Danish Jan Poulsen who is expected to jet in tonight. The Danish coach takes over from Brazilian Marcio Maximo whose contract expired about a month ago.

Kaijage said the federation has been striving to get strong teams to give Taifa Stars a real test ahead of the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations finals in Gabon in 2012. Taifa Stars will launch their campaign against Algeria in an away game next month before facing Morocco in October.

"We believe the game will be an ideal training for the national team ahead of the AFCON qualifiers," said Kaijage.

Moreover, he said, Poulsen is set for a big challenge as the soccer fans are looking nothing short of victory. The Danish has signed a two- year contract effective this August. The former Denmark assistant coach beat four other coaches who were shortlisted from a list of 59 applicants.

The TFF describes Poulsen as tactician of a top 'quality'. He is also a coaching instructor recognized by FIFA. He played most of his professional career at Boldklubben Frem. During the 1980s he coached Boldklubben Frem and Koge Boldklub.

In 1990 he was named Richard Moller Nielsen's assistant for the Denmark national football team, and he was part of the team that won the Euro 1992. After the win in 1992 he was promoted to head coach of the Denmark national under-21 football team.

He had this job until 1999, when he was named new sporting director of the Singapore national football team. When Vincent Subramaniam was sacked in 2001 due to bad results, Poulsen stepped in to replace him.

This didn't help Singapore and Poulsen himself was sacked in 2002. He then returned to Denmark to a couple of minor coaching jobs. In 2006 he made an agreement with Greve Fodbold to become new head coach, but at the same time he got the offer to become coach of the Jordan U-20s.

In the end he accepted the job from Jordan. In January 2008, he accepted an offer to become the head coach of the Armenia national football team. On March 30, last year, Poulsen was relieved of his duties from the Football Federation of Armenia.