Opa Clement says Tanzania will take lessons, plan for future WAFCON

Photo Credit - CAF Women’s Football

Tanzania women’s national team captain Opa Clement has promised a strong comeback to the next edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) after they exited at the group stage of the current edition in Morocco.

Clement, whose only goal against the reigning African champions South Africa, ensured that Tanzania registered their first ever point at the WAFCON in two appearances – 2010 and 2025, said they will go back home to assess their performance and plan for the future.

Tanzania were drawn in Group C and kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 defeat against Mali before stunning South Africa in a 1-1 draw. Their final group game saw them suffer a 4-1 defeat against Ghana to finish last in the group with one point.

“We leave here with the understanding of tournament football. How you start sets the pace for the rest of the tournament. Against Mali, we felt that we did everything that was possible to win but conceded a late goal,” said Clement as quoted by CAFOnline.

“Against South Africa, we scored first and against Ghana, we came from behind to equalise but then conceded three more goals. We shall take the lessons. We are going back home to assess our performance and to plan for the future.”

She added: “For all of us that played at this WAFCON, this was our first time to feature at the tournament. We came here with the sole goal of going to the final, but we fell short. We did not fail because we leave here with so many lessons learnt.

“We feel that we represented our nation with honour. We gave everything that we could and at least out of the three games, we scored two goals and gained a point against the defending champions South Africa. That is something. Our plan is to come back to the WAFCON.”

Tanzania will shift focus to the last round of qualification for the WAFCON 2026 edition when they face Ethiopia in October.