Yanga defeat in Algeria requires explanation

YOUNG Africans over the weekend suffered a 4-0 defeat to Algerian USM Alger in their first leg match of the CAF Confederation Cup’s group stage in the Algerian capital, Algiers.
 
Immediately after the defeat, a lot of narratives made the rounds in Dar es Salaam, of course, starting with the profile of the players that made up the team that was tasked to take on their Algerian counterparts.

But as rightly pointed out by fans, most of the top-flight Young Africans’ players did not travel to Algeria, hence the fielding of young, mostly inexperienced players, particularly at such a level of the tournament.

Although the Young Africans’ management is yet to issue a statement on why they fielded such a weak team against the tough Algerians, but again the rumours that have been making the rounds in Dar es Salaam is that senior players were on strike.

And on why the players had decided to go on strike just at the time when their services were urgently required not only to represent their club, but also Tanzania at large that remains a conjecture.

But while we leave Young Africans’ management to sort out whatever problem the club may have faced that necessitated the fielding of a weak team; one thing I would like to make it abundantly clear is that I personally don’t support the players for whatever reason that may have forced them to do what they are alleged to have done.

Indeed, how can we expect better performance from a team whose leaders appear to have decided to consign the team to defeat? As rightly noted by a section of Young Africans fans, a glance at the lineup clearly showed that the team had been dispatched to Algeria not for competitive purposes, but to lose the match! While we blame the players whose action may have led the management to get the kind of team that was dispatched to Algeria, but the club’s management cannot also escape censure.

Yes, they need to explain to the club’s fans and Tanzanians in general why they got themselves and the club in general where it is. Simply put, the club’s management needs to come out with a statement, that clearly explains why they were forced to send to Algeria the kind of players they sent.

They need to do that sooner than later because our clubs are not participating in these continental soccer tournaments just for the heck of it. Our soccer clubs are participating in these tournaments as part of experience gathering process that would eventually help our players in becoming better competitors. And as soon as they gather the requisite experience, our players will not only be better placed to represent their respective soccer clubs in international tournaments.

But at individual level, some of these young men may have the opportunity of being spotted by scouts from topflight clubs in more advanced soccer nations where they could earn their living as professional soccer players. In a nutshell, our teams are participating in continental soccer tournaments not in order to fail, but to do well.

But we cannot do well, internationally, when we continue to field poor teams, and sometimes as in the present case, not because we don’t have better players; but simply because we are forced to field poor players account of conflicts within our clubs.

It’s simply bad to see a team that had been given the opportunity to get where Young Africans are presently in and then conduct themselves in the way the club has conducted itself.

The argument here is not that they should have won against their Algerian counterparts by hooks and crooks, far from it.

Tanzanians simply wanted them to provide a more competitive game to the Algerians, play in a manner that would have enabled Young Africans to get positive results in their return leg match in Dar es Salaam.

However, Young Africans’ results in Algeria do not provide confidence that our team would do well against the other three sides in their respective group.

The implication of this is that I personally don’t see how Young Africans are going to reach far in this tournament.

And the question I have repeatedly asked myself whenever Tanzanian soccer clubs are knocked out of continental soccer clubs tournaments is what is the point of taking part and winning the Vodacom Premier League only to post the kind of results that Young Africans had over the weekend?