Tanzania: Let's All Rally Behind Azam, Biashara, Simba

ALL three Tanzanian envoys engaged in the CAF governed inter-club tournaments deserve wholehearted support to enable them advance to the upper stages.

The teams are Azam and Biashara United representing Tanzania in the CAF Confederation Cup while Simba are the only envoys in the CAF Champions League.

For all three to succeed, the extra use of skills, extra commitment and shrewd planning must be applied in their both home and away games this weekend.

We are forced to insist on those aspects as none of them has an assurance for the upper stages; Simba who have remained in the CAF Champions League did well last season as they managed to reach the quarter final after clearing their group stage hurdles.

Simba who play Jwaneng Galaxy away in Gaborone, Botswana this weekend must do away the past jinx that saw them losing to UD Songo of Mozambique.

In retrospect Azam are facing Pyramid of Egypt and Biashara United are scheduled to lock horns with Al Ahly of Tripoli of Libya.

Since the opponents are tough, our envoys must fight hard to overcome these hurdles and get tickets to play in the group stage for Simba and play off for Azam and Biashara.

Two things are likely to work for all three, one they have to fire on all their cylinders and stop any leakage in their defence; one, the pressure to win would be on their opponents. We believe with that our envoys must not worry since the opponents come from countries whose football levels are not far superior to us.

We insist our teams to work hard and win since it pays well the country, the clubs and players who are engaged in the tough mission since we have been honoured to have four teams parading squads with quality players. But to achieve that we urge them to work extremely hard to go through to the upper stages given the kind of opponents they have who are certainly no pushovers.

The importance of working hard on one's pace lies in the fact that the standard of soccer in Africa is more or less the same from the south to the north and from the west to the east.

Any team that is capable of playing at a very high pace for more than the regulation time is capable of winning matches both at home and away from home.

While we insist of commitment, appropriate use of skills and fighting spirit as vital tools to success, we wish our envoys best luck.

This article originally appeared in Daily News.

Photo: Daily New Media