Simba fans booed as Yanga beat Mazembe

Saturday, February 18, and Simba SC fans’ perennial bragging that no foreign team walks out of Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium, aka Kwa Mkapa, unscathed was trashed following their team’s humiliating 0-3 defeat at the hands of Morocco’s Raja Casablanca.

Up in smoke went their dreams of eating President Samia’s Sh5m for every goal against the foreign teams that were to play our boys in the CAF Championship over the weekend.

And that, at Kwa Mkapa, where Simba fans have traditionally dubbed visiting teams’ slaughterhouse!

Come Saturday, and it was Simba that got slaughtered instead! This being Bongo, fans of Young Africans aka Wana-Yanga jubilated, booing anyone wearing Simba gabs wherever they passed.

Tibu, the celebrated Simba FC cheerleader in our neighbourhood, went undercover, walking through dark alleys to avoid Wana-Yanga who’d jeer him mercilessly for “his” defeat!

For those who caught up with him at some corner, Tibu would hit back: “You can laugh at me as much as you want now, but 7pm tomorrow isn’t far away and we’ll see how you’ll avoid a defeat by TP Mazembe!”

Jane, the akaunta at Family Bar, went wild after Simba’s thrashing. After the final whistle, she left the counter cabin and ran around the drinking arena, hugging drinkers affiliated with Yanga and booing everybody associated with Simba, including Uncle Kich.

Sunday was the day of reckoning for Simba, er, no, Yanga, who were facing DR Congo’s TP Mazembe. It appeared like Simba fans were keener on this match than their Yanga counterparts.

According to Uncle Kich, Simba fans in drinking establishments considered very crucial the Sunday match between TP Mazembe and Yanga.

“Are you suggesting you’re praying that Yanga beats TP Mazembe and thereby restore our honour as a country?” you had asked Uncle.

“On the contrary, we as Wana-Simba are hoping that TP Mazembe will beat Yanga so that these Wana-Yanga will stop laughing at us...we will all have suffered the same fate, so they’ll stop mocking us once they’re also beaten!” he reasoned.

I asked him why he was so confident Yanga would be whipped the way “his” team was. He claimed that Bongo football history shows that whenever our teams are promised something big, they always lose.

I considered this assertion a mere rumour, so I didn’t bother to demand that he provides any “historical” evidence.

Now, Sunday, February 19 came and we all know what happened at Kwa Mkapa between 7pm and 9pm. Yanga reduced to novices the boys from the land of Felix Tshisekedi.

By the 10th minute into the game, the Congolese were down 0-2! They scored one in the 79th minute but that was all. Yanga sealed the visiting team’s fate by adding another goal two minutes to the final whistle. And became Sh15m richer!

Beer became tasteless to Uncle Kich; Esaya felt suddenly thirstier and stepped up his drinking to reduce his frustration. These two Simba Sc diehards are now considering not watching any football matches involving their beleaguered favourite team in bars.