Second place, relegation, Golden Boot race hots up

TANZANIA: WITH two games remaining in the season, all eyes are on three areas: second place, the relegation struggle, and the golden boot competition.

Simba and Azam are battling for second place, with both clubs level on 63 points after 28 games, winning 19, drawing six, and losing three.

Azam are ahead of Simba by five goals, putting the race in Azam’s favour by goal difference, but Simba have the advantage on head-to-head, if the two teams tie goals and points in the end of the race.

Azam’s last two matches are against Kagera Sugar on Saturday and Geita Gold on Tuesday. Simba have matches against Kinondoni Municipal Council on Saturday and JKT Tanzania on Tuesday.

The question is who will make the most of the two games and finish second and join Young Africans in the CAF Champions League in the 2024/25 season. Failure to finish second will send them to the CAF Confederation Cup.

On the relegation battle, Mtibwa Sugar’s chances of retaining their place in the NBC Premier League next season are slim as the Morogoro-based team sit at the bottom of the league table with 20 points after 28 matches.

ALSO READ: Aziz Ki: Golden boot key

Following Monday’s goalless draw against Namungo at Morogoro’s Manungu Stadium, their chances for surviving in the league dwindled and a draw or defeat in their remaining games will send them to the lowest division, NBC Championship.

This means they need to win their games against Mashujaa on Saturday and Ihefu on Tuesday to increase their chances of surviving in the league and climb to 14th with 27 points.

However that will also depend on the outcomes of Geita Gold, currently 15th in the league with 25 points from 28 games, Tabora United, 14th with 27 points from 28 games, and Mashujaa, who is 13th with 29 points from 28 games, win.

Things are heating up with more questions about who will face relegation, which will go to the playoffs, and who will avoid both playoffs and relegation as Geita Gold fights to stay up and avoid either playoff or relegation, while Tabora United and Mashujaa are currently in the playoff zone.

As a result, the bottom four clubs’ destiny will be decided in their final two games. Former Majimaji FC player Abdul Ntila remarked that it will not be a surprise if the goal difference rule will be used to separate the two teams at the end of the season.

“Both are remaining with two games to play, and based on their current performance, I do not see any of them dropping essential points though in football anything can happen. “As such, I strongly believe that a goal difference will be applied to determine the team that will join Young Africans as two envoys in the CAF CL next season.

ALSO READ: Feisal sets eyes on golden boot

“This tough competition between Simba and Azam has helped a lot to sparkle the league and I wished this could have been the championship race just like what happened in the English Premier League (EPL) between Manchester City and Arsenal,” he said.

Now, diving into the next interesting chapter on the Golden Boot prize race, this is a headscratching subject as the two top candidates for the award, Stephanie Aziz Ki (Yanga) and Feisal Salum (Azam) cannot stop scoring. Aziz Ki scored a brace against Dodoma Jiji on Wednesday to get back at the peak of the top scorers’ list with 17 goals from 28 matches with two games in hand to play.

He is just one goal ahead of Feisal who has netted 16 goals from 28 encounters and both players are searching for a platform to put their hands on the lucrative football award for the first time in their careers.

Just recently, the Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB) introduced new guidelines to break the tie if two or more players have netted the same number of goals at the end of the campaign.

As per article 13.1 of the new system, goals that will be scored normally will earn two points and those to be converted through penalties will be awarded one point.

Then article 13.2 elaborates that if they accumulate the same number of points, then the one who played a few minutes more than the other will be declared the golden boot winner.

Article 13.3 states that if they are equal in terms of the abovementioned qualities, then the one who scored more away goals will grab the top scorers’ award. For Aziz Ki, he has Tabora United and Tanzania Prisons to increase his goal tally while Feisal is left with Kagera Sugar and Geita Gold to add something into his goal basket.

Meanwhile, the best scoring Premier League record set up by former Yanga player Mohamed Hussein ‘Mmachinga’ of scoring 26 goals in 1999 remains unbroken. It is almost 25 years now ever since he established the invincible record that many players from within and outside the country have tried to break in vain.