Soccer giants Simba and Yanga yesterday started this year’s Vodacom Premier League campaign with wins.
Defending champions Simba defeated African Lyon 2-0 in a match played at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam while Yanga clobbered hosts Police Dodoma 1-0 in another match at Jamhuri Stadium.
Amiri Maftah scored the two goals for Simba. Maftah who featured for Yanga last year, registered the first goal for his new club in the first 15 minutes when his corner-kick went untouched into the opponents’ net.
The defender-cum-midfielder added the second in the 64th minute through a well-taken penalty. A referee awarded the penalty after an African Lyon defender had rough-tackled Nicodemus Nyagawa.
Simba head coachPatrick Phiri said after the game that he was happy with the win. “We have rectified mistakes which made us lose against our archrivals Yanga in the Charity Shield match last Wednesday,” he remarked. In Dodoma, Jerry Tegete scored the lone goal for Yanga in the 44th minute when he outclassed defender Noel Msakwa of Polisi Dodoma before beating goalie Kondo Salum. Yanga could have won with a larger margin if their players had been more accurate as the likes of Athumani Iddi wasted a lot of scoring chances.
I have been involved with sports in Tanzania as a Volleyball Coach for many years—and was a Tanzania Amateur Volleyball Association (TAVA) leader. I studied sports management at Leipzig University in Germany and understand the science behind sports. That led me to work as a football pundit, with the BBC ( Swahili service) in London. That experience and exposure took me to covering the 2010, World Cup in South Africa. This provided me with a great insight into international level football commentary and the opportunity to carry out extensive research into the game including its players, the stadiums, the rules and tactics.I have also been grateful to meet a wide range of people connected to football in the UK, Tanzania, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, France, Kenya etc, and visited almost all of the key football stadiums across United Kingdom, and Europe.
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