Enticing battles as VPL hots up

 Dar es Salaam. Can you bet your last cent on the champions of the 2015/16 Vodacom Premier League?

The title race has reached its turning point with the guessing game on who will win the championship the order of the day.

Permutations are already being played around with, and some have drawn their conclusions on who will be crowned the kings of Tanzanian football come May.

There is no question that with almost three quarters of the season’s matches played; it is now a three-horse race to the coveted title, which involves defending champions Young Africans (43 points) Simba SC and Azam FC (42).

Mtibwa Sugar could have also been in the race, but of late, they have been generous enough to donate points to even teams in the last third of the 16-team table.

A fortnight ago, it all seemed that the title was clearly going to either Yanga or Azam with the former being highly tipped to retain the gong.

Nonetheless, struggling Coastal Union put the brakes on Yanga’s fairy-tale run with a deserved 2-0 victory at Mkwakwani Stadium.

That sent ripples of shock to the Jangwani Street heavyweights and before the dust settled, Tanzania Prisons capped Yanga’s bad week with a 2-2 draw.

They cannot be written off though. The Hans Pluijm’s men responded to their recent woes with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over rock-bottom JKT Ruvu on Sunday.

Azam, with two games in hand, have what it takes to open a five-point lead at the summit, but winning the title, they must take points off Yanga and Simba.

Some pundits are convinced that the trophy will remain in the same room it has been locked in for the past one year, but with 12 matches left, league leadership may still change hands amongst the top three.

Their line of thinking is premised in part on the belief that Yanga have always produced a stupendous performance when in this striking position, especially at this stage of the season.

However, with Simba hitting the right note in the second round, the thought that the trophy will go to Jangwani seems fallacious.

Yanga have to take maximum points from their close challengers to guarantee themselves of back-to-back silverware. Simba edged their bogey team, Kagera Sugar, 1-0 in Shinyanga over the weekend to make it six out of six winning streak for the new coach, Jackson Mayanja.

Azam, who are looking to win their second Premier League silverware, also mustered a wafer-thin victory (1-0) over Mwadui FC at Azam Complex.

The victory ensured that the Chamazi moneybags who are trained by Briton Stewart Hall stay neck-and-neck with the country’s oldest clubs.

Relegation battle

It is tight at the top, but so is the bottom. Eight teams have not guaranteed their safety as any of them may suffer relegation come May.

The likeliest candidates, however, are JKT Ruvu, African Sports and Coastal Union.

As it stands, they all tie on 13 points garnered from 18 matches.

Kagera Sugar, once a force to reckon with in the Mainland, have had a nightmare season and they are placed 13th with 15 points from 18 outings.

After languishing in the First Division for nigh half a decade, Majimaji FC’s survival in the topflight league also seems unrealistic. They have 16 points from 18 matches. Barely three points from the drop zone. Mgambo JKT and Ndanda FC are level on 17 points. The standings on the bottom half of the log promises a relegation dogfight in the coming few weeks.

Golden boot

It was a quiet weekend for top contenders for the golden boot. Simba’s Hamis Kiiza and Yanga’s Amissi Tambwe top the scoring chart with 14 goals apiece. However, the duo, who are in hot pursuit of the accolade, could not find the back of the net on Sunday.

Kiiza and Tambwe are followed by Tanzania Prisons’ Jeremiah Mgunda and Yanga’s Donald Ngoma who have each scored 10 times.