The commercial city of Dar es Salaam came to a standstill yesterday as two heavyweight clubs in the country Simba SC and Young Africans met for the first time this season at the National Stadium in the city.
It was a busy and money making day for transport operators ranging from bajajis, bodabodas and commuter buses (daladalas) which continuously kept ferrying people of all ages to the 60,000 capacity venue to be part of the history as the two teams, when they meet, history books are re-written.
Also, the day was massive for food vendors, who clustered outside the stadium selling different foodstuffs to the approaching supporters as many had their lunch at the venue, while few had both breakfast and lunch there.
The weather was as usual, warm with scorching sun blazing heavily accompanied by the blue skies but that was too little to prevent passionate football fans who coated themselves in their team’s traditional colours hence easy to identity them as to which team they belonged.
It was good to see that even family members made their way to the stadium accompanied by their children, symbolising that football makes a strong bond, which plays a big role to unify people together regardless of their gender, religion, race and even age.
The gates at the stadium were officially opened as early as 10:00am and by this time, large scores of people had already begun arriving.
Just outside the venue, the atmosphere was really amazing and one who was a stranger and perhaps just passing by without having the idea that two oldest clubs in the country were meeting, definately, he or she could have known without being told.
Jerseys of both teams including trumpets and flags were nicely decorated outside the stadium ready to be sold to fans, who were making their way into the stadium, while some supporters, in their groups, were entertaining audience singing songs in praise of their respective teams.
“As you can see, only Simba fans are the ones who have put on their jerseys confidently while Yanga supporters are afraid to wear the club’s shirts because they are aware that the outcome of the match will be negative for them,” said one Simba fan who was in the white jersey of the club.
However, his claim was responded by a nearby Yanga supporter who said: “Jerseys do not play football as such, the 90 minutes of normal play will surely give a good judgment of who is the giant among the two teams.”
The verbal war among supporters of Simba and Yanga is another positive ingredient which makes the traditional derby special and memorable to people.
It is an ongoing thing which never stops even when the match has been played.
The other notable thing about the Dar es Salaam derby is that outside the stadium, interraction among the supporters of both sides was unlimited but inside the arena, as long as you have put on colours which identify a particular team, then you need to sit where your colleagues are to avoid confrontation.
However, as usual, inside the stadium, a Simba fan who occupies the left hand section of the stadium completely filled their seats and overflowed the half mark to the right hand section which is resided by Yanga fans, who were handful in comparison with their counterparts.
Yanga players were the first to emerge from the tunnel for pre-match warmups while Simba players, who were the hosts, followed visitors.
