Tanzania: Ilala Book Taifa Cup Semis Ticket

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Jackson Odoyo

22 May 2011

Red-hot Ilala thumped defending champions Singida 3-0 to record one of the biggest upsets in the Kili Taifa Cup tournament at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium here yesterday.Striker Omary Matuta, who was a real thorn in the flesh for Singida defenders, sealed the score for Ilala a few minutes to time to send the 2008 Taifa Cup champions into the semi finals.

The slippery striker was at his best in yesterday’s quarter-final, with Singida’s defence, built around Peter Msaga, Joachim Kimolo and Dotto Mahecha, undone time and again by his trickery and pace.Matuta, one of Mtibwa Sugar’s key players, ran Singida ragged time and again with a performance laced with unstoppable power, pace and devastating end product that left the title holders without any answers.

It was the biggest defeat for Singida, who finished top of Group A in the round robin stage of the annual tournament in Tabora early this month.After some high quality early exchanges, in which the Singida team went close two times, they were Ilala who went one up after just 15 minutes into the game.

From then on, the Ilala boys took the game to their opponents, commanding the proceedings with swift but accurate passes to the delight of a partisan crowd at the venue.Singida briefly put Ilala at bay towards the end of the first half, but inept finishing and poor coordination upfront let them down.

On resumption, Singida’s coach Abdalah Msamba rested George Martin, Hamisi Kisuke and Poul Makona in favour of Kimolo, Dotto Mahecha and Peter Msaga.However, his move did not pay dividends as his substitutes failed to enliven the team.”From the first minute to the last, we played incredibly. We pressed them and outplayed them throughout the afternoon,” Ilala coach Mbaraka Hassan said shortly after the match.

Ilala, who have vowed to regain the trophy they last clinched in 2008, finished the group stage of the tournament with a 100 per cent record. In its initial stage, the tournament was played in six zones, comprising Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Tabora, Mbeya, Morogoro and Lindi with four teams in each.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final were initially planned to take place at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam, they were moved to Arusha because the Dar es Salaam venue has been closed for renovation. The Under-23 national soccer team is among the teams battling it out for top honours in the prestigious championship.For the U-23 team, the tournament is part of their preparations for the final round of the 2012 Olympic Games qualifiers.

The Tanzanian boys, who made it into this round of the Olympic Games at the expense of fancied Cameroon, will face Nigeria next month in the next stage of the qualifiers.

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