This was the big change in this year's tournaments, as neither club earlier expected anything more than a Group Stage appearance, as the sponsorship math is square with the group stage, largely. Nothing could be planned beyond that stage.
The reason is evidence that the higher one goes up the ladder of either tournament, the more experienced and well-resourced opponents are likely to be brought up, to an unavoidable undoing of a poorer club.
It is a well-known rule in football that the richest clubs do not always win but they are inevitably the sides to beat, as they have what it takes, routinely, to beat any side that comes their way.
The city rivals are not quite at that stage in continental soccer but are distinctively focused this season.
Yanga, dropping to the second-tier tournament, have incessantly been talking of a continental title since subduing Rivers United at the quarterfinals stage.
They then obtained a good result against Marumo Gallants in the home first-leg match, while Simba SC has never been in a position to talk about the title.
The Group Stage was in any case sufficiently hard to guard against any quick talk of clinching a spot in the quarterfinals, and when it was done, it was a matter of luck whom it had earned.
Decidedly indulgent commentary has been voluptuously crediting Yanga with its breaking the quarterfinal curse into the semi-finals while casting their next street rivals in a negative stance for exiting at the quarterfinal stage.
This preoccupation with stages rather than the clubs the two sides met was sort of amusing at the very least, especially as Simba SC fell to the reigning champions only on a penalty shootout.
Eclipsing Rivers United and being eliminated by Wydad Athletic Club are not equal.
Yet that is the big lie sweeping the city and even at upper organizational levels, to see Yanga as more successful, whereas their task next season is daunting from a psychological point of view.
While Simba SC has the luxury of trying to figure out how to keep the side intact instead of grey on the edges next season, Yanga still has to prove that they are not simply among the best also-rans in this season's continental tourneys.
The only big club they faced, Al Hilal, beat them in Sudan after recording a draw in the first leg match, thus neatly eclipsed, which was not the case with Simba SC against Raja Club Athletic, then Wydad Athletic Club.
In that case, the sort of perspective emerging in Dar es Salaam that Yanga is Africa's title side unlike Simba SC is maverick, to say the least, but is anchored in a reasoned position, a sort of despair about making it to the Group Stage in the CAF Champions League.
In that mood of resignation, they then sink into a strategic brainstorming session as to how to win the second-tier tourney, if not this year then the next.
But assuming they can defend their 2-0 lead against Marumo Gallants, there is all likelihood of playing in the final, and who knows? They may as well excel against highly rated ‘also rans'.
This farcical celebratory mood makes Yanga a bit of a misfit as presumed local league champions for they do not have continental ambitions in the proper sense of the term.
Simba SC has, on the contrary, shown that it can put up a redoubtable fighting spirit at that stage, as a 3-0 away loss to Raja Club Athletic was not emphatically repeated at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, popularly known as ˜Estadio Lupaso', as it earned a goal.
The other Casablanca side, at a higher level of the tournament, just sailed past Simba SC after losing to the Msimbazi Street side in the first clash. Yanga ought to examine if they have a side to beat any big club next season.
This is the hard question that the mainstream soccer pundits and the fans especially are not posing, for the reason that the fan base does not want to confront the perennial accusation by their next-street rivals that they shake things at the local stage but are nowhere good enough at the continental stage.
This year's continental appearance by the side was essentially a repeat of the past in its demonstrated lack of ability to transmit the preliminary stage of the top-tier tourney. They even detest it.
In that case, the city rivals are still tied down to the usual game of hide and seek, where Yanga is now celebrating huge achievements among those who failed to move past the preliminaries.
With this surreptitious achievement behind them, they will scarcely be under fan base pressure to rebuild or strengthen their side to sort of excel in the top-tier continental tourney, the CAF Champions League.
In that case, only Simba SC is in a position to think of such issues, but the climbing will be steep as the 3-0 and then 3-1 result shows clear weakness before a side like Raja Club Athletic, yet sort of stood the test with Wydad Athletic Club.
The Msimbazi Street side will seek an uplift but as it is tied to middle-level players on the continental stage, it will require plenty of scouting, and where necessary, raising the cash profile a bit.
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