CAF Confederation Cup
Yanga revel in making Tanzania history, now they aim for the stars
Tanzania’s Young Africans, affectionately referred to as Yanga by all and sundry, are basking in the light of glory, becoming the first Tanzanian team to play in the final of the CAF Confederation Cup.
They are only the second Tanzanian team, after their arch rivals Simba SC in 1993’s CAF Cup, to play a continental final, and now, they are seeking to go all the way and reach the stars, to clinch their first ever continental title.
Wanajangwani dropped to the Confederation Cup after elimination in the
CAF Champions League. They were beaten 2-1 on aggregate by Sudan’s Al Hilal in the second round, and they have used that exit pain as fuel to charge their run in the Confederation Cup.
They played in the additional preliminary round, beating Tunisia’s Club African 1-0 in aggregate. They played to a barren draw at home, before winning the return fixture to earn their place in the group stages.
They were drawn in Group D where they finished top with 13 points, edging out Tunisia’s US Monastir on goal difference.
They had four wins from six matches, a draw and a loss. Their only defeat was a 2-0 result away to Monastir while their draw was a 1-1 result away to Real de Bamako.
They beat giants and two-time champions TP Mazembe home and away, Monastir and Bamako both in Dar es Salaam.
In the quarters, they beat Nigeria’s Rivers United 2-0 on aggregate, the victory away from home in the first leg sufficing after a 0-0 draw in the return fixture in Dar.
In the semi-finals, they faced South Africa’s Marumo Gallants, winning 4-1 on aggregate with a 2-0 victory at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam and a 2-1 win in South Africa.
They have had a solid record at home in the competition, only dropping victory in their play-off match against Club Africain and the return quarter final fixture against Rivers United.
Players to watch:
Congolese forward Fiston Kalala Mayele has been Yanga’s go to man for goals, the lanky striker playing a crucial role in their run up to the finals with nine goal involvements in 10 matches. He has scored six and assisted three.
Goalkeeper Djigui Diarra has also been a wall for Yanga at the back, keeping five clean sheets in nine matches, stats that have proved vital for Yanga to make a run till the final.
In midfield, Ugandan Khalid Aucho has been an unsung hero, and his calmness on and off the ball have been vital for Yanga especially providing the screen to the back four.
Yanga’s road to the final
Play-off Round
1st Leg Young Africans 0 Club Africain 0
2nd Leg Club Africain 0 Young Africans 1
Young Africans won 1-0 on aggregate
Group Stages
Union Monastirienne 2 Young African 0
Young Africans 3 TP Mazembe 1
Real Bamako 1 Young Africans 1
Young Africans 2 Real Bamako 0
Young Africans 2 Union Monastirienne 0
TP Mazembe 0 Young Africans 1
Quarterfinal
First Leg, Rivers United 0 Young Africans 2
Second Leg, Young Africans 0 Rivers United 0
Young Africans progress 2-0 on aggregate
Semi-final
First Leg, Young Africans 2 Marumo Gallants 0
Second Leg, Marumo Gallants 1 Young Africans 2
Young Africans progress 4-1 on aggregate
CAF Confederation Cup
CAF adjudges Morocco’s Youssef Mehri’s goal as the fastest in football history
Moroccan club, Renaissance de Berkane, beat their Algerian counterparts, CS Constantine, 4-0 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals at the weekend.
The game got off to a dream start for the Moroccan club as it took Youssef Mehri less than a minute to open the scoring in the big win against the Algerians.
Officially, the goal is recorded to have been scored after 13 seconds.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), CAF remarks: “Youssef Mehri goes straight into the history books. The RS Berkane striker scores the fastest goal ever scored in the CAF Cup.”
A deeper search by Sports Village Square indicates that a Nigerian player, Paul Onuachu, had previously scored a faster goal, but not in a CAF Cup duel.
The basketball player-like footballer scored his first international goal in a 1-0 defeat of Egypt on 26 March 2019.
The goal inflicted Nigeria’s first defeat on Egypt in 29 years. But more significant was the timing of the goal. Onuachu, within eight seconds of kick-off, undoubtedly entered the record books as the second fastest goal in international football records after that of Germany’s Lukas Podolsk, who scored after six seconds in a friendly against Ecuador in 2013.
Fans had hardly settled down at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba for the Nigeria versus Egypt match when Onuachu released a thunderous shot that turned out to be the match’s decider.
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The Renaissance Sportive de Berkane delegation will travel to Algeria this Friday to face CS Constantine in the CAF Cup. Tension may be building up for the potentially explosive confrontation that could have a build-up from last year’s fixtures of the Moroccan club and another Algerian outfit, USM Algiers, in the CAF Confederation Cup.
A Moroccan news outlet, Sport.le360, reports that a Tunisian airline will operate the direct flight between Oujda-Angad Airport, which is located about 12 kilometres north of Oujda and about 600 kilometres northeast of Casablanca, near the Algerian border and Constantine Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport.
Last year, political differences between Morocco and Algeria scuttled similar semi-final clashes between clubs of both countries.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday ruled in favour of the Algerian football federation in a row over a map of Morocco on shirts worn by Renaissance Berkane in the 2024 CAF Confederation Cup.
Algerian club USM Alger were kicked out of last year’s competition after both legs of their semi-final against Berkane were cancelled because of a diplomatic dispute.
Neither match took place as USMA and the Algerian authorities objected to a map of Morocco on the Berkane shirts which included Western Sahara.
Algeria cut diplomatic ties with North African neighbours Morocco in 2021, partly over the Western Sahara issue.
The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks the territory’s independence.
The Confederation of African Football awarded Berkane a 3-0 victory for both legs of the semi-final.
CAF at the time responded to an appeal by the Algerian FA by ruling in favour of Berkane, saying the club had been wearing the same jerseys since the start of the tournament.
But the Algerian FA took the case to sport’s highest court in Switzerland, which determined that the shirts in question were “contrary to CAF regulations, as they display a territorial map that is of a political nature.”
“The image of a map of Morocco including Western Sahara on the shirts of RS Berkane depicts a message, a demonstration or propaganda of a political nature as it represents the assertion of a territorial dispute that is contested and still unresolved as of today,” CAS said in a statement.
“By the laws of the game of the International Football Association Board, it is prohibited to convey any content of a political nature on all equipment, including shirts.”
CAS added that the initial decision by CAF to “maintain the approval of the shirts is annulled”, but the court said that it would have no effect on the results of the tournament.
Egypt’s Zamalek beat Berkane on away goals in the final.
-AFP
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