After last weekend’s Premier League wins, the country’s soccer giants Simba and Young Africans have now turned their attention to the eagerly awaited encounter, baptized ‘Dar Derby’, at the ultra-modern National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
National Stadium in Dar es Salaam
Simba and Yanga emerged winners in their matches held at the National Stadium and Kaitaba in Bukoba respectively. Simba beat Prisons 1-0 and their arch-rivals Yanga won 2-1 over Kagera Sugar.
Sunday’s match not only make both clubs nervous and opt to go for strenuous training, but it also affects millions of the two giants’ fanatic admirers, including politicians, who make the Dar derby the talk of the week.
Simba, currently in the pilot’s seat of the league table with 18 points, have decide not to desert the city as usual as they will be camping at Bamba Beach at Kigamboni sharpening their claws to make sure they go for a kill when they host Yanga on Sunday.
The Msimbazi Street-based club’s spokesman, Ezekiel Kamwaga, confirmed to the ‘Daily News’ yesterday that their squad will not leave the city but they will be at their regular camp at Kigamboni for the derby.
Yanga, on the other hand, returned to Dar es Salaam yesterday afternoon from Bukoba and will this morning head to Pemba where they will set up a residential training camp. The defending champions, who have 15 points in their bag, are determined to beat Simba and occupy the driver’s seat.
Simba head coach Abdallah ‘King’ Kibadeni said he had decided to rest his prolific goal scorer Betram Mombeki and midfielder maestro Amri Kiemba last weekend as to get them ready for Sunday’s derby.
He said Mombeki did not feature in the team’s victory 1-0 over Mbeya’s Prisons as he has two yellow cards and had he got another on Saturday it would have automatically meant that he would miss the match against Yanga.
“Mombeki and Kiemba are key players for Sunday’s match and I have prepared Mombeki to destroy our opponents,” he said. In their return-leg game last season, Yanga beat Simba 2-0 with goals scored by Didier Kavumbagu and Hamis Kiiza.
Basing on his experience as a former Simba player and coach, Kibadeni said the match between the two giants is not decided by history of past matches and is determined to win on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s match between Simba and Prisons raised 60,521,000/-. Each club received 14,191,002/55. Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer Boniface Wambura said 10,494 people paid to watch the game at the 60,000-seater Olympic Standard National Stadium.
By BETRAM LENGAMA, Tanzania Daily News
