By James Waindi in Dar es Salaam
Young Africans (Yanga) victory over Simba SC fourth was their fourth in the 37-year-old club championship involving the 11 nations making up the Council for East and Central African Football Association (Cecafa).
The triumph took them closer to the six titles won by their cross-town archrivals Simba. Yanga’s first win, incidentally, was a 2-0 defeat of Simba in the 1975 final in Zanzibar. The others were; 1993 - Yanga 2-1 SC Villa (Uganda) in Uganda; 1999 – Yanga 1-1 (4-1, penalties) SC Villa in Uganda.
For the first time, Africa pay television, Supersport International, relayed all Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ matches played in Dar es Salaam live and as well as all the knock-out fixtures. Also, for the first time, every Cecafa nations Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar was represented.
Sam Timbe of Yanga, winner previously with Rwanda’s Atraco, Sports Club Villa and Police of Uganda, was up against Moses Basena, recently the assistant coach for the Uganda national team.
Basena, clearly disappointed at missing a coveted trophy, plus $30,000 (Sh5.1 million), was to say later that he felt unfortunate to have surrendered to "an ordinary (Yanga) team".
Timbe was to retort: "That was his (Basena’s) opinion. We are the team that scored and won. We are quite happy with that."
The most talked about topic throughout the two-week tournament was whether Simba and Yanga would contest the final and indeed who would be the winner. Much of the taunting between supporters of the teams, split almost equally throughout this country of 48 million people, revolved around the "Man and Best" theme.
Yanga’s bragging was about being a club "of the people [masses], by the people" while Simba boasted of their might and pedigree demonstrated by their "Lion" club emblem.
