The Hawks first game in the final round of 2010 qualifying is on 28 March against Cameroon.

Thiessen takes over from former Nigerian football star Stephen Keshi. Keshi is remembered for having qualified the Togolese National Football squad for their first World Cup participation in Germany 2006 but did not go along with the team because of misunderstandings with some of the players, especially with play-maker, Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor.

German-born Otto Pfister, now coaching Cameroon, headed the Togolese technical bench at the 2006 World Cup tournament in Germany. Pfister resigned in the course of the tournament thanks to Togo’s dismal performance.

After the 2006 World Cup, Keshi was recalled to take over the head of the technical bench of the Hawks. Like in the previous circumstance, some of the players called to the Togolese national squad failed to collaborate with him. This forced him to throw in the towel once more.

With a crucial third and last phase of the joint World Cup and African Cup of Nations, 2010, eliminatories expected to kick-off March 28, the Togolese Football Federation has contracted Thiessen for 18 months. His major preoccupation; qualify Togo for the 2010 African Cup of Nations, ACN, billed for Angola and the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

Thiessen’s first major hurdle will be against the mighty Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, as the Hawks take on the Lions on Saturday, March 28 at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana. It will be the kicker in Group A. Togo will be playing out in Accra because the Lome main stadium is under a FIFA ban for crowd violence during an eliminatory match pitting Togo against Mali.

Togo will be playing alongside Cameroon, Morocco and Gabon in Group A matches for the last phase of the dual eliminatories for the World Cup and African Cup of Nations 2010.

Talking to the press after his appointment, Thiessen said he has been given a job as the Togolese national football trainer and national technical director of Togolese football, “Therefore, I am bound to stay in Togo and do my job effectively. I’ll not be a visiting football coach as it is the case with many football coaches in national teams across the African continent. I’ll not have a job in Togo and stay I Europe.”