Israel Saria
Unless runaway leaders Simba slip up terribly in their next five premiership matches, holders Young Africans have an uphill task to plot Mainland soccer hat-trick title bid for the season.
Unblemished in their 13 matches, Simba have opened a massive 12-point gap as they travel to Lake Victoria region to honour their league assignments against hosts Toto Africa and Kagera Sugar teams.
The holders who have collected 27 points out of eight wins and three draws, have no margin of error in their remaining nine matches that can fetch them additional 27 points only if they post wins.
Yanga have a ceiling of 54 points which can be attained by Simba should they maintain their rollercoaster display in the next five matches.
It’s hard time for Yanga to block Simba from their inexorable title quest while praying on other teams to halt Simba’s spellbinding display.
The massive 12-point gap is virtually complicating Yanga’s hat-trick title dream with Simba at the helm of the 12-team standings league.
Yanga’s Serbian coach Kostadin Papic who joined the team last October, has to work above the call of duty for title retention dream to be realised.
The Patrick Phiri-coached side has never dropped a point since the league kicked off on August 23, yet maintaining a superior positive goal aggregates of 22 over the rest of the teams.
Conceding five goals in 13 matches is another factor that keeps Simba to have an edge over the other teams as they rekindle hopes of winning the scudetto for the first time since 2006.
There is a wide possibility for Simba to flop in the next league games but this depends on complex mathematical permutations and the prevailing circumstances surrounding their training camp.
As it is, every team is subject to taste defeat but this can not be quantified with reasonable certainty.
Simba meet relegation-haunted Toto Africa in this weekend’s 14th round fixture at the CCM Kirumba Stadium in Mwanza.
The situation is delicate for the host side who suffered a 3-1goals defeat in their first leg away match to Simba at the Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam on September 5.
Upsets are what makes a soccer league much more interesting as Toto seeks to become the first side in the premiership season to halt Simba’s unbeaten run.
Other teams with possibilities of making the title chase includes Azam FC and Mtibwa Sugar who have a ceiling of 52 and 49 points, respectively.
However, the teams need to step up efforts to win the rest of their nine matches while praying for Simba to lose steam, by losing the rest of the fixtures.
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