Mutual respect as Simba ‘also’ win

There’s this radio clip in which a football fan laments on the miseries one bears when he has the “misfortune” of being a soccer fan.

Loving football is sheer torture, says the clearly suffering man, probably a Simba fan reflecting on the humiliating 5-1 defeat in the hands of archrival Young Africans SC last season.

However, that’s only one side of football lovers’ story, for there’re times when the joy of avowed adherents of the world’s most popular sport becomes immeasurable. Yeah, like when your team, considered the underdog, beats the expected winner.

When Al Ahly FC played Simba at their home ground in Tripoli on Sunday, September 15, backed by a crowd of 45,000 fans, everybody was surprised when the Bongo team held the Libyans to a 0-0 draw.

Why, Al Ahly looked superior in most aspects, only that they failed to convert several chances at Simba’s danger area into goals. Hence the understandable fear that the Arabs would reorganise and whip our boys in return match in Dar.

Drinkers at Temu’s Bar in Usangi, Mwanga District, where Wa Muyanza and his usual suspects Esaya, Tyson and Vikita watched the match live on TV, were unanimous on this view. Sob!

Yanga, on the other hand, had beaten Ethiopia’s CBE FC 1-0 in an away match on September 14 and therefore, destroying them further in a return match was a “foregone conclusion.”

As Wabongo soccer fans are apt to brag: “Kwa Mkapa hatoki mtu!” meaning, at Dar’s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, no foreign team escapes unscathed.

Indeed, come Saturday, September 21, and CBE fell 0-6 at the hands of the Jangwani Street boys.

“We’ll be at Kwa Mkapa just to enjoy a good game and count the goals, not to see whether or our team wins or loses,” Chellengwa Ndava, a hardcore Yanga fan, had said.

However, real thrill was on Sunday, September 22. Simba fans were all a bundle of nerves, for anything could happen in their game against the boys from the land of Muamar Gaddafi.

And for sure, Al Ahly hit Simba in the 18th minutes when their attackers caused confusion amongst Simba defenders, and the ball went past their goalkeeper Moussa Camara.

The smiles on the faces of Al Ahly players and Yanga (sic!) fans at Family were, however, wiped off in the 37th when Kibu Dennis did them in with a ticktack, which left the Libyan goalkeeper Al Turki gawking.

That was followed by two more goals by Simba’s Lionel Ateba and Edwin Balua in the 46th and 91st-minute consecutively.

You should’ve witnessed the celebrative chaos at the Family following Balua’s goal, for it meant Al Ahly’s fate was sealed. And Simba, like their watani Yanga, had qualified for the group stage.

The lead cheerer at our table bought two-two for everyone and ordered two boiled goat heads for us all. The noisiest Yanga supporter who’d been cheering Al Ahly was offered a single beer and ordered to go away!

Currently, there’s mutual respect amongst Simba and Yanga fans in our neighbourhood; thank God.