SOCCER: Tanzania cruise with victory over Somalia

Story by CHARLES NYENDE

 

Hosts Tanzania continues with their winning ways with a 1-0 win over Somalia in a Group A match of the Challenge Cup at the National Stadium in Dar es salaam.

 

The hosts scored their vital goal through Michael Chuma in the 64th minute of the match.

 

Meanwhile, three-time Challenge Cup champions, Ethiopia, enter the fray for the first time on Thursday with a difficult outing against Zanzibar in a Group C match at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium, Arusha.

 

Ethiopia, champions in 1987, 2004 and 2005, will be looking to lay out their credentials as contenders and have four surviving members to the team that won the title back to back.

 

The most visible name in the team is striker Tafese Tesfaye, who has been a regular in the Ethiopian line up this decade. The other experienced players coach Kemal Ahmed can rely on are goalkeeper Sadat Jemal, defender Adane Girma and midfielder Behailu Assefa.

 

Zanzibar, effectively the home side, will be buoyed by their 2-2 come from behind draw on Sunday against a Sudan side that had attracted a lot of fear by virtue of being the only nation from the Cecafa region to have qualified for the African finals in Ghana next year.

 

Zanzibar coach, Abdulghani Msoma, in press reports from Arusha, said his side should not have conceded the goals they did and he will be looking to get all three points from Ethiopia, who, on paper, are weaker than Sudan.

 

The two teams last met on December 8, 2005, in Rwanda during the same tournament with Ethiopia emphatic 4-0 winners.

 

Group “C” has three teams fighting for two qualifying berths to the quarter-finals.

 

The Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup’s local organising committee announced that TSh35 (Sh 1.9 million) was collected in gate revenue for the opening match between Tanzania and Kenya.

 

The tie attracted 12,000 spectators, which has remained the largest attendance figure this far into the tournament.

 

Despite some good football on the pitch the Challenge Cup has been greeted by half empty stadiums apart from the day hosts Tanzania are playing.

 

“Attendance is normally poor at the start of the competition but picks up as the tournament progresses. We will be seeing bigger crowds in the latter stages,” Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye said.

 

Ticket charges for the tournament range from a high of TSh20,000 (Sh1,111) for the VIP stand to a low of TSh 3,000 (Sh167) for the “Russia” side.

 

Many local fans have complained over the high prices saying this will deter fans from coming in large numbers to the stadium.

 

Interestingly, the National Stadium Dar es Salaam is divided into zones to sort out Simba and Yanga fans, owners of the two pre-eminent clubs of Tanzania. To the left side of the centre are red seats where Simba fans sit while at the right are yellow seats for Yanga fans.

 

All those in between, who care less or more for both sides have the blue seats which represent the national colours. The terraced section on the right of the centre stand also has artificial demarcations, with Simba fans sitting on the lower stands and Yanga fans on the upper stands.

 

It is worthy of note how each set of fans blames the other for cheering the opposition when Tanzania are playing. This did happen on the opening match of the tournament when sections of the near capacity crowd spontaneously broke into applause whenever Kenya executed a good move to the chagrin of other home fans.

 Source: Daily Nation, December 13, 2007