League title down to three-horse race

Yanga who are perched at the top of the ceiling with 59 points after 24 appearances, have huge opportunity to retain the title depending on their performance.

Having lost just one game out of the 24 played so far, Yanga seems to be on the right track to lift the silverware for the second consecutive season.
Yanga have won 18 matches and drew five of them to accumulate a hefty stock of 57 goals while conceding paltry 13, the lowest of all the teams competing in the premiership fleet this season. Yanga have a ceiling of 77 points if they won’t drop any point in their six games left. The ceiling is the highest of the three top-placed teams.

Second-placed Simba who have played one more game than their archrivals Yanga, trail by two points and need to pray for other teams to give them a windfall advantage if they are to dislodge Yanga from the title track.

Simba have lost all of their two matches to Yanga this season by the same margin of 2-0 goals and there is no way they can tame the holders anymore. For Simba to gain title momentum, they should shuffle their cards right while praying for their archrivals to flop in their six remaining premiership games.

The paradox still lies on how a match between Simba would end as the third placed team in the standings table have a ceiling of 73 points should they post victories in the rest of their games before the season winds up next month. Simba have the lowest of the ceiling in case they win all of their five league matches including that against Azam.

Title winning is so far limited to those three Dar es Salaam-based teams as the rest in the top flight berth are ruled out and fight for survival.

Morogoro-based Mtibwa Sugar have 43 points and are left with four matches before coming to the end of the season. The sugar processors have a ceiling of attaining 55 points in case they win all of their four matches left on the fixture. Their ceiling is limited to 55 points which has by far been surpassed by Azam, one of the three title contenders.

Of the three coaches for Yanga, Simba and Azam, Hans van Pluijm looks well set to lead his players into the podium finish for the second back-to-back time. However, Azam’s English coach Stewart Hall and Simba’s Ugandan Jackson Mayanja still have not lost hope of the title campaign as the season comes to an end.

The worst for the two coaches of Azam and Simba is that they have to wait for performance of other teams to keep Yanga off the title track for them to gain advantage.

Yanga have at least to drop massive six points through either losing two matches or draw three matches for Azam and Simba to revive hopes of winning the Mainland title this season.