Asamoah gave Yanga 4th Kagame Cup

GHANAIAN substitute Kenneth Asamoah headed Yanga to a 1-0 deep extra-time win over arch rivals Simba in Sunday’s final of the Cecafa Kagame Castle Cup tournament at the National Stadium, Dar es Salaam.

Introduced during the energy sapping added period, Asamoah was hardly in the field for a minute when he converted a pin-point cross from Rashid Gumbo who had ran down the left flank. The Ghanaian’s powerful header broke the stalemate, leaving stranded the usually almost impregnable Simba international ‘keeper Juma Kaseja.

It became Yanga’s fourth victory in the 37-year-old club championship for the 11 nations making up the Council for East and Central African Football Association (Cecafa). Yanga edged closer to the six titles won by their cross-town arch rivals Simba of Dar es Salaam.

Yanga’s first win, incidentally, was a 2-0 defeat in the 1975 final in Zanzibar, of Simba. The others were; 1993 - Yanga 2-1 SC Villa [Uganda] in Uganda; 1999 – Yanga 1-1 [4-1, penalties] SC Villa in Uganda. Not one seat was left untaken at the 60,000 capacity stadium in this extra-ordinarily passionate nation about football.

Pundits termed this year’s championship, sponsored by both Tanzania Breweries Limited and President Paul Kagame of Zanzibar, as the most successful ever and also the most electrifying in terms of fan enthusiasm and publicity hype.

For the first time, Africa’s premier television sports broadcasters, SuperSport International, relayed “live”, all Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ matches played in Dar es Salaam and all the knock-out fixtures. Also, for the first time, every Cecafa nation was represented.

The Cecafa nations are:-Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar Arguably the most successful organizers of Africa’s zonal competitions, Cecafa expect their membership to sour with the introduction to the fold of Africa’s 54th and newest state, South Sudan, whose birth happened on the weekend.

On Sunday, the final was balanced on a knife-edge, throughout the 90 minutes of normal time. Strategy and structure was key in both sides, each led by a Ugandan coach that had won at least one title before.

Sam Timbe of Yanga, winner previously with Atraco [Rwanda] and SC Villa and Police of Uganda, was up against Moses Bassena, recently the assistant coach for the Uganda national team who had also won a Kagame Cup title with SC Villa. Bassena, clearly disappointed at missing a coveted trophy, plus $30,000 [TSh5.1 million], was to say later that he felt unfortunate to have surrendered to a “an ordinary [Yanga] team”.

Timbe was to retort: “That was his [Bassena’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 pedigreedemonstrated by their “Lion” club emblem.
“The Lion may roar or the ‘People’s Team’ may prevail,” some pundits forecast. Godfrey Taita, the overlapping Yanga full back was the first to test Kaseja in the seventh minute, Simba surviving a goalmouth scramble after an attack on Yanga’s right flank.

In the 16th minute, Davies Mwape, the huge Zambian, tested Kaseja with a header and in the 23rd, Jerry Tegete failed to strike home for Yanga after a wonderful cross from defender Oscar Joshua who had overlapped on the flank. Those were the best chances that came in the first half, the second being a cagy affair, mostly to avoid going behind.