Azam Fc players celebrate after scoring during a recent Vodacom Premier League match at the National Stadium. photo | file
In Summary
The Sokoine Stadium has always been a bad venue for
Yanga in recent seasons, but they may take comfort now that Prisons are
not in their best form.
Dar es Salaam. The Vodacom
Premier League leadership may change hands today as joint leaders, Azam
FC and Young Africans play in different venues.
Yanga, as they are popularly known, will be at the
Sokoine Stadium, for a match against ailing Tanzania Prisons while Azam
confront stubborn Ruvu Shooting at Mabatini ground.
Azam are at the summit of the table with 25 points
thanks to a better goal difference, but will be hard-pressed to bag
maximum points today, for any slip-up will certainly boost other title
chasers.
Both sides have been in a rich vein of form
lately, and their Champions League (Azam) and Confederation Cup (Yanga)
triumphs will definitely fire them up.
Yanga beat BDF XI of Botswana 2-0 on Saturday and Azam recorded a similar win over El Merreihk of Sudan a day later.
Speaking with The Citizen yesterday, Yanga head
coach Hans van der Pluijm said he is content with the team’s form, but
warned his players not to relax.
“Our recent form shows that the team has grown a
bit stronger, but we can’t afford to relax; we have to keep on
improving,” said the Dutchman.
The Sokoine Stadium has always been a bad venue
for Yanga in recent seasons, but they may take comfort now that Prisons
are not in their best form.
Prisons are at the bottom of the 14-team table with 11 points from 13 outings. They have so far won one game this season.
Contrary to Yanga, Azam face a sterner test
against Ruvu Shooting who sit sixth in the table with 19 points-- just
six points behind the leaders.
A win for Ruvu Shooting will see them climb the
log to the third place, rising above Kagera Sugar who have 21 points and
have played 15 games.
However, the odds are stacked against Ruvu
Shooting as Azam, who annihilated Mtibwa Sugar 5-2 last week, will be
out to prove that their victories are no fluke.
Meanwhile, El Merreikh striker Allan Wanga is optimistic
thatthey still have a chance of eliminating Azam FC when they meet in
the return leg of the CAF Champions League preliminary round return leg.
“This is definitely a bad result. We expected to perform better than the 2-0 loss.
“I know we have to work hard, but we have a chance to pick a good margin win and qualify,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment