AfricaPress-Tanzania: AFTER picking a 1-0 win over Kagera Sugar on Wednesday, Young Africans said they will stay put in Bukoba to polish up the squad before facing their traditional rivals Simba SC on Sunday.
The country’s two giants face off in the semifinals of the Azam Sports Federation Cup (ASFC) whose winner will play either Namungo FC or Sahare All Stars who will battle it up in another last four clash of the same contest tomorrow.
It was Ghanaian import Bernard Morrison who netted the winner on the day in the 79th minute to silence the hosts and bag in essential three points from the tricky Kaitaba Stadium.
“Due to logistics reasons, the big part of preparations will be done in Kagera that is why some players who remained in Dar es Salaam have since been deployed to Kagera to regroup with their colleagues,” said the club’s Information Officer Hassan Bumbuli.
About the progress of Haruna Niyonzima and Juma Abdul who picked up injuries, Bumbuli said they are responding well to treatments and have since started training sessions with their teammates.
“Doctors confirmed that they did not sustain dangerous injuries to keep them off the pitch for a long time as such, we expect them to be fully fit on Sunday,” he said.
On his part, the team’s Head Coach Luc Eymael was full of praise of his side for grabbing three points from a team which has been thorny to him this season.
“We played on the artificial pitch which was not easy but at least the boys fought hard to emerge winners unlike with other playing fields where the ball keeps bouncing without seeing quality football,” he said.
But it still remains a puzzle as to whether skipper Papy Tshishimbi will play on Sunday as the DR Congo midfielder has not been featured in any game since the resumption of the league after Covid-19 break.
However, there are reports that Yanga skipper is looking forward to play in the eagerly awaited derby as the Congolese midfielder Tshishimbi is planning to request the technical bench to engage him even if for 40 minutes of the match as is quite fit now.
However, Kagera Sugar coach Mecky Mexime conceded the defeat saying the match was good and that his side gave in everything to win but they were not lucky.
“For us, we just need to look forward to other upcoming games in the league so that we do our best to post tangible results,” he said.
It was the third time this season for Yanga to face Kagera Sugar in two different competitions whereby the former have won twice (2-1, 1-0) while the latter won once (3-0).
