Tanzania: Simba Face Vital’0 Test

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

24 June 2011

MAINLAND outfit Simba begin their attempt to regain stranglehold on the East and Central Africa Club Championship, Kagame Castle Cup, by playing Vital’O in one of group A’s opening matches at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

The match will be preceded by the group’s other game pitting Zanzibar’s Ocean View against Rwanda’s Etincelles, to be played at the same venue from 2pm.

Simba will particularly be keen on beating the Burundians with a view to practically ascertain their desire to emerge as one of serious competitors in the tournament.

On paper, the Msimbazi Street side, which is so far one of the most successful outfits of all time in the annual tournament, will be termed as favourites in the group A but faces a daunting task of living up to the tag.

The club has not been performing well in the regional tournament in the past few years and will this time be buoyed by the home ground advantage in its bid to win the seventh title.

Simba might have not played Vital’O for years but the former still have fond memories of defeating the Burundians in the final of the regional tournament, which was played in Zanzibar almost a decade ago.

The then Simba squad led by Kenyan winger, Mark Sirengo, and Burundian left back, Ramadhan Wasso, edged Vital’O to lift the trophy and add to an already proud collection of honours the club has garnered in the tournament.

A win for Simba will further serve as a timely consolation for the side, which recently crashed out of the CAF Confederation Cup after losing to DC Motema Pembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by 2-1 goals aggregate in the third round.

The Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Secretary General, Nicholas Musonye, said on Friday Eritrea’s Red Sea FC will be added into group A to bring the number of participating teams in the group to five.

“The Eritreans will arrive on Saturday evening. They encountered an unavailability of air tickets a few days back but they have confirmed that they will be in the city, thus, we will put them in group A”, he said.

He said Red Sea FC’s presence in group A now means three teams from the group will qualify for the quarterfinals, while the top two teams from the remaining groups, plus the best loser, will also progress to the stage as planned earlier.

Musonye added that eight teams are so far already in the city ready to start battling it out in the tournament while four others are expected to arrive on Saturday in the evening.

He hinted that the Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Emmanuel Nchimbi, is expected to be the guest of honour in the opening matches and requested domestic soccer fans to attend matches in numbers.

The Tanzania Breweries Ltd through its Castle Lager beer flagship has dished out 300m/- to sponsor the coveted regional championship. A total of 12 teams from Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Djibouti and Zanzibar will compete in the two-week event that will be jointly held in Dar-es-Salaam and Morogoro.

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