DAR DERBY: WILL YANGA REVENGE THE 5-0 HUMILIATION?

                    

19^th  July,1977 and 6^TH May,2012 will be etched in the minds of Yanga fans as the darkest days in the history of their club.On those dates Yanga were humiliated 6-0 and 5-0 respectively by  their arch rivals,Simba  in  Dar Derby matches. In the 1977 match,Aballah  Kibadeni  tore apart Yanga’s defence and scored a hat-trick.Other goals were scored by Jumanne Hassan and an own goal by Selemani Sanga completed the 6-0 humiliation. Ugandan import,Emmanuel Okwi engineered last year 5-0 routing by scoring a brace and creating chances for others.

Next month Simba and Yanga will meet in the final day of the season.Yanga seems to be in superior form as compared to Simba who are enduring one of their worst season. While Yanga seems to have one hand in the Vodacom league trophy, Simba are in a rat race fighting for a top three finish with three other clubs.Simba’s season is just empty.  Leadership wrangles in Simba have overshadowed their season.Simba had to part ways with their Serbian tactician,Milovan  Curkovic midseason after a string of poor results. They brought Frenchman, Patrick Liewig but they are yet to see consistency  in results.

Problems at Simba have raised hopes among Yanga faithful that it is their time to revenge for last season’s humiliation. They have sensed blood, they want to go for the kill.Crush Simba  by as many goals as possible. Many feel it is highly possible since Patrick Liewig has insisted on fielding under 20 players being groomed to replace the veterans accused of not showing commitment and lacking discipline among other accusations. The strict French tactician has vowed to give the inexperienced yet talented young players a chance in all the remaining matches including the big one at the end of the season.

The young players such as Miraji Adamu,Hassan Khatib,Jonas Mkude ,Abdalla Seseme,Ramadhani Singano and Chanongo have shown considerable promise but  whether they will be able to handle the pressure and onslaught from Yanga is another question. How the fans take it is another debatable issue.

However, unless Simba decides to throw away the match or their kids bottle it completely Yanga does not have a striking force that is intimidating enough t o put five goals past a defence. Of lateYanga has been grinding 1-0 wins depending on goals from  midfielders as their strikers keep misfiring.Neither  Burundian import,Kavumbagu nor  Ugandan import Kiiza has shown an impressive form.The local boys,Tegete and Bahanuzi seems to have forgotten how to score with the latter not having seen the back of the net for ages.