There was a full 90 minutes of play after that point, including a missed penalty and some near misses, for the game to remain a stalemate at goal level, but the play the host side put in their away match carried the day. Yanga left the pitch head bowed.
There were impressions that the Jangwani Street side might have the luck to score another goal as the USM Alger captain and acknowledged team leader, Zineedine Belaid, failed in a penalty shot that was saved by the Yanga goalie, Djigui Diarra.
It was not the first time he did that, and the rules of blame have it that the best player misses a penalty so that either the club or national team ranks and files grudgingly acknowledge that it is just bad luck.
Either a weaker or ordinary player would have plenty of problems carrying that blame.
Analytically speaking, the fact that Yanga failed to use the penalty goal within five minutes of the start of the game to add another goal, and then the home side failed to score a penalty, makes the two sides completely balanced.
Yet the fact that the Algerian side prepared for the first game more intensely than Yanga, who may have started to celebrate way too early, proved to be a durable advantage.
It comes down to the philosophy of finishing the game in the first match and defending it later.
It is not clear if Yanga's head coach Nasreddine Nabi was sobbing at the end of the match, but some onlookers in television rooms appeared to notice as much.
It is a scant possibility as he already had finished 'grieving' over the outcome of the first tie at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam, popularly known as 'Estadio Lupaso', and nothing was surprising that his side did not score a goal after that penalty.
The more accurate impression on his part would rather be satisfied with how his side handled the second final match, eliminating any chance of disaster, by a substantial walloping that was eagerly expected by some.
The stadium atmosphere was a sort of reminder of what happened when Simba SC played Wydad Casablanca in the former's away match in the 2022/23 CAF Champions League last-eight round, in that wild celebration and plenty of firecrackers more or less died down not long into the match.
The penalty score cut down much of the fans’ enthusiasm, but as the minutes slipped by, they were more eager and anticipating. They less expected goals than wishing the game ends.
Yanga had control of the midfield for the better part of the game, missing a second goal narrowly towards the end, just as USM Alger's well-built Botswana player, Tumisang Orebonye, has a shot that beat Diarra and crawled past the far post during injury time.
This may to an extent suggest that Nabi met stiffer opposition compared to his old home side Club Africain whom he found a way of subduing when Yanga went there for CAF Confederation Cup playoffs, enabling the Jangwani Street side to start another hunt for continental honours. It came close to doing that, just like Simba SC.
The reactions to the early Yanga goal were unsettling for their city rivals as it now looked like the visiting side was in pole position to take the trophy if they added another goal.
And given their good showing in the midfield, it appeared that the head coach had indeed found a way of controlling the home side, and could get away with it as he did at Club Africain. Worrying about a Yanga win was intense.
In that case, Yanga players had the confidence they needed for most of the match, the penalty score having dampened the USM Alger fans considerably, but, as the game went on, a section of the fans started using catcalls as a substitute.
Some local fans also observed that the rain ‘arrived safe and sound’ in Algiers as it was raining heavily in much of the first half in particular, a situation some pundits had suggested occasioned their undoing.
They were not overly repeating that sort of funny view, saying opponents played much better in the rain owing to good boots.
There is an expression in the national language that he who wants to insult doesn't choose what to say', so we hear that between an Algerian side and a Tanzanian side, it is an Algerian side that will be more comfortable with rain.
We forget for a moment that the North African country is mostly desert, despite that there are pockets of ordinary rains in coastal areas, especially for relief rainfall, over mountain slopes.
There was still a curve of opinion in how the final match outcome is received.
The result was too mixed to call, a win in the match itself and a loss in the outcome.
It implies that only the first match was worth talking about as it is the one that laid the premise for what happened in the return tie, more or less irreversibly.
For a newcomer club in continental competition upper rounds after a preliminary round exit in the top-tier showdown earlier, it was a good run, better than expected.
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