SIMBA Vs YANGA: Big guns lock horns
What you need to know:
Yanga and Simba, the two clubs, which are as old as the country’s football square off at the 60,000-seater National Stadium this evening
Dar es Salaam. Traditional soccer rivals in the country Yanga and Simba today clash in their mainland Premier League second leg match at the National Stadium.
Simba Sports Club chairman Mohammed Dewji popularly known as ‘Mo’ and who is rarely seen speaking to his players, yesterday night planned to hold talks with his players at the club camp to ensure they win today over Yanga.
It is believed that the Simba-Yanga encounter today is worth over Sh1.55 billion, leave alone millions of shillings spent on the teams’ preparations.
This signifies how important the match of the soccer giants in the country is as the worthiness of the match, which is to kick-off from 5pm, comes following pledges given to each team, cash from sponsors and gate collections estimated to be at Sh600 million.
In their last encounter of the premier league held on January 4 at the same venue and ended in a 2-2 draw, about Sh539 million was collected as entry fees.
Forgetting about their past duel, at least Sh500 million is said to have been provided to each team by their chief sponsor Sportpesa, whereby each player of the teams is to pocket Sh250 million.
Besides that, players of both teams have been promised to be given a cash prize, if one of the teams is to emerge victorious as the pledges from both teams have in total amounted to Sh400 million.
Yanga, who are the hosts in today’s encounter, have promised, if they win, to give Sh300 million, which is to be shared among the players and the technical bench as each player has been promised Sh10 million.
Simba, on their part, have promised to give Sh150 million as a reward to their superstars and the technical bench if they happen to thrash Yanga today.
However, the amount of cash, which is Sh1.45 billion and the biggest in the country, may go up if the teams’ sponsors will be happy with the match results of their sides.
To ensure Simba are beaten today, the differed camps within Yanga have been reconciled including former Yanga leaders, who visited their team’s camp and training to motivate their players as they promised to give each of them Sh10 million.
In today’s derby, Yanga will bank on striker Bernard Morrison while Simba will use Luis Misquissone.
Both players have the ability of controlling the ball well, running fast, creating spaces and scoring goals.
Morrison has already scored two goals for Yanga in the mainland Premier League matches while Simba’s Miquissone has three. Either of the teams that will control midfield may have a big chance of emerging victorious in the game.
Simba may use their 4-4-2 system, starting with four midfielders while Yanga may field five players as midfielders, using a 4-2-3-1 system.
Possible lineups
Yanga: Metacha Mnata, Juma Abdul, Jafari Mohamed, Lamine Moro, Kelvin Yondani, Feisal Salum, Papy Tshishimbi, Bernard Morrison, Mapinduzi Balama, Haruna Niyonzima and Ditram Nchimbi.
Simba: Aishi Manula, Shomary Kapombe, Mohamed Hussein, Erasto Nyoni, Pascal Wawa, Jonas Mkude, Luis Miquissone, Clatous Chama, Meddie Kagere, John Bocco and Francis Kahata.
Today’s match will be officiated by referee Martin Saanya from Morogoro Region and assisted by Mohamed Mkono and Frank Komba while the match commissioner is Elly Sasii.
