Tanzania’s Young Africans SC, alias Yanga, had never eliminated a North African opponent in an African inter-club tournament’s knockout round.
Yanga’s most recent failure came in the duel against Sudan’s Al Hilal SC who despite being found in the CECAFA Zone are more associated with North African football culture.
The Tanzanian champions provided a stunning performance in Tunis on Wednesday, edging out the home side and one-time African Champions, Club Africain, 1-0 to progress to the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup for the first time since 2018.
Yanga’s head coach Nasreddine Nabi’s men were held to a goalless draw by their Tunisian opponents at Dar es Salaam’s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium last week and were left with plenty of work to do in the return leg to avoid elimination.
They needed either a win of any sort or a scoring draw in Tunisia to advance to the 2022/23 CAF Confederation Cup group stage.
In living memory, every Yanga trip to North Africa has featured a demoralizing end. It was understandable there were many doubters than believers that Yanga will defy the odds in Tunisia.
Many did not shy from pointing out Nabi’s men were out for a customary beating in North Africa.
Only the hardcore believed when coach Nabi said the tie was hardly over and the balance of the game was in Yanga’s favour.
“This tie is not over, I am surprised to see people who think we are out. I can agree with only one issue, we failed to win at home, but this draw is more of an advantage to us than it is to our opponents,” Nabi said before flying out to Tunis with his side for the return leg.
For many fans, both from Yanga and Simba SC, the return leg represented the opportunity to continue the tradition of either epic or glorious failure in North Africa trips.
There have been epic failures, and there have been humiliations, results, and performances where worlds collapsed.
Yanga’s defeats to North African clubs include a 4-0 loss to USM Alger (2018), a 4-0 defeat to MC Alger (2017), a 1-0 loss to Al Ahly (2011), a 3-0 loss to Al Ahly again (2009), and 3-0 loss to Esperance Tunis (2007) to mention just a few of embarrassments.
The more rational and optimistic Yanga fans were prepared for another glorious failure like the 2016’s in which they conceded a last-minute goal against Al Ahly in Cairo or 2014 again against Al Ahly when Yanga’s Said Bahanuzi’s notorious miss in the penalty shootout was seen as an embodiment of falling short in one miskick.
When all Tanzania football enthusiasts thought they had seen this story before, what happened next on Wednesday was Yanga produced a mature performance that was described as one of the best by a Tanzanian team in their African adventures.
“That is one of the best away performances I’ve seen by a Tanzanian club. Tanzanian teams usually freeze in these away matches when they need a positive result,” Tanzanian football follower Salim Said noted immediately after the game.
Lotfi Wada, a keen African football follower from France was also moved by Yanga’s performance, writing: “Yanga played the perfect away performance…defensively more than solid, never really troubled by Club Africain, clinical… deserved qualification, ‘hongera to Mwananchi’.”
Looking back at the proceedings at Rades Stadium in Tunisia, this Yanga side under Nabi has proven to be different, and they gradually pushed with greater intensity and purpose as the clock ticked down.
Finally, on 79 minutes, a cutback by winger Farid Mussa found midfielder Salum Abubakar ‘Sure Boy’ whose terrific diagonal ball found attacker Fiston Mayele’ header to set up midfielder Stephane Aziz Ki who unleashed a thunderbolt which, by way of a small deflection, went into the net.
Nabi’s team maturely controlled the game during the remaining 15 minutes including the four minutes of added time to see the game out.
It was not the best-attacking performance that soccer fans in Tanzania have seen from Yanga but it is how they were able to grind out the 1-0 victory without coming under heavy pressure to secure the group stage ticket, that is eventually all that matters.
The ghost of nightmare trips in North Africa has been busted. History has been rewritten. There was a real quality to Yanga in possession and real purpose and aggression to their pressing out of it.
Even Bernard Morrison, the last player a soccer fan would see defend, could be seen pressing his opponents.
But perhaps more impressive and compelling than the quality of football was Yanga’s attitude to the game, their determination in that second half, and their stubborn refusal to crumble with so much on the line, was remarkable.
The determination and hunger to grind a positive result in such an environment showed this is a team with character.
It is not like it is a one-off event, this season, Yanga has had three comebacks. In 15 games in all competitions, they have lost only once, which was away to Al Hilal SC.