Africa-Press – Tanzania. ALL eyes will be at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium where giants Simba and Young Africans lock horns in a fight for the Community Shield today.
According to the statistics compiled by the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), the two sides have so far played four head to head Community Shield games since 2001, with each winning two matches.
In 2001, Yanga won 2-1 in normal period of play while in 2010 when they again met, Yanga won 3-1 on post-match penalties after the teams finished the normal 90 minutes of play in a barren draw.
In 2011, they faced off again and this time, Simba produced their first win after registering a 2-0 victory and the fourth time they played was in 2017 when Simba recorded a 5-4 post match pens victory following a goalless draw within normal time of play. As such, today happens to be the fifth meeting of them in the same competition hence nobody is aware yet which team will bring home the glittering silverware after 90 minutes of sweaty play.
Speaking yesterday in the city, Didier Gomes narrated that they have had ample time of preparations and it is time for the players to do their job.
“Everything in our team is okay and we are just waiting to see what the final results will be. For our part, we are not looking only at tomorrow’s (today) match but our focus is to do well in all matches around the season,” he said.
His counterpart for Yanga Nasreddine Nabi said his side is well prepared for the match since all his regular players are in good frame of mind to do the job.
“This derby is watched by many people around Africa that why we want to make sure that we work hard to produce the tangible results at the end of the game,” he said.
The match will also signal the commencement of the 2021/22 Premier League season which has attracted a total of 16 teams engaged in a fierce battle for the prestigious title at the end of the league next year.
Simba will begin their championship defence with an away encounter against Biashara United at Karume Stadium in Musoma on September 28th before heading to face Dodoma Jiji at Jamhuri Stadium on October 1st.
Their colleagues Yanga will open their campaign on September 29th with a nerve-racking away fixture against Kagera Sugar at Kaitaba Stadium in Bukoba before returning to Dar es Salaam to host debutants Geita Gold at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on October 2nd.
