Dar es Salaam — The national soccer team, Taifa Stars, begin their campaign for the Gabon-Equatorial Guinea CAN 2012 qualifiers against hosts Algeria at the Mustapha Tchaker in Blida on Friday night.

Stars' delegation arrived in Algiers on Wednesday ready for the tricky encounter scheduled to kick off from 22.00hrs local time (0000hrs East African Time) in Blida province, about 45km from Algiers.

The clash will be officiated by Togolese referee Djobi Kokou. Taifa Stars' head coach Jan Poulsen has already outlined his game plan. He promised to stick to his tactics. Tonight he will be expected to switch between his two preferred systems, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1.

Poulsen said he knows that the game will be tough for his side because they will be playing away and their opponents will have an added advantage of playing in front of massive home supporters.

But he said, his team will go into the match in a right and positive frame of mind - that is to compete. The Danish tactician acknowledged that his squad will be inspired by US President Barack Obama's iconic slogan 'Yes We Can' when they perform their demanding task against Desert Foxes.

"We know that we're going to play against tough team, they played in the South Africa 2010 World Cup and have a lot of professional players, but with the right determination and the right passion, yes we can! I believe the Obama's slogan will work for us too," he said while in Dar es Salaam.

His sentiment was echoed by skipper Shadrack Nsajigwa who promised a spirited performance against the Algerians and urged Tanzanians to have faith in their team, saying it is capable of upsetting the Desert Foxes. The Stars will be cheered up by tens of Tanzania students who pursue their studies in Algeria.

ATSA President Habib Luombo told tff.or.tz that they were prepared to cheer for their team strongly against thousands of home fans. The Algeria-Tanzania will be Poulsen's first competitive match as Taifa Stars coach, after last month's international friendly match against Kenya that ended 1-1.

He took over from Brazilian tactician Marcio Maximo, who had twice failed in his bid to lead the team to African - 2008 and 2010 finals in Ghana and Angola respectively. Hence he shoulders a huge task, that is, to tread where his predecessor had trodden.

Poulsen knows exactly that the campaign will be tough considering the quality of other teams in their group. Apart from favourites Algeria, they will also play Morocco and Central Africa Republic.

Central Africa Republic are on paper the weakest link in the passage to Gabon-Equatorial Guinea finals, however, to have any chance Poulsen's men should steal points from the two North Africa giants, Algeria and Morocco too.

In his farewell remarks, the Deputy Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Joel Bendera challenged Taifa Stars players to have positive mind, play with determination and put on extra efforts to achieve success.

The long marathon of 132 matches which started in June with group K matches will end in October, 2011 with 14 teams, out of 44 emerging to join the two co-hosts at the final phase. According to the qualification teams that will be qualified for the final phase of the 2012 ACN are first team of each group, the second team of Group K which consist of five teams and the two best second teams of ten other groups.

The two best second teams of the group of four will be determined by considering their results with the first and the third of their respective groups without taking into account their results with the last teams of their groups in order to permit Group F (Burkina Faso, Gambia and Namibia), to stay in the competition for the two best second teams.

Taifa Stars probable starting line-up: Shabaan Kado, Shadrack Nsajigwa, Idrisa Rajabu, Aggrey Morris, Nadir Haroub, Henry Joseph, Nurdin Bakari, Abdi Kassim, Danny Mrwanda, Nizar Khalfan and Mrisho Ngasa.