Tanzania/South Africa: Var to Light Up Simba-Pirate Tie
SIMBA said they expect to have a trial run of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam tomorrow ahead of their CAF Confederation Cup match against Orlando Pirates this Sunday.
The two teams meet in the first leg fixture encounter of the competition prior to the reverse tie at Orlando Stadium in South Africa next Sunday and the winner of the two-legged fixture will advance to the semifinals.
Reaching into the Confederation Cup’s last four stage has been the objective of Simba hence they have two boundaries to cross before arriving at the Promised Land and the ball is already in their territory.
As such; this is another difficult task for Head Coach Pablo Franco to undertake as he has millions of Tanzanian souls in his hands bearing in mind that it is his responsibilities to drive the team further.
However, speaking on Thursday in the city, the club’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Barbara Gonzalez said they are progressing well with preparations and are all set to have a trial run of VAR.
“This is the first time in East and Central Africa to host VAR and on Saturday (tomorrow), we are going to have a trial run of the technology before officially using it on Sunday,” she said.
Again, Gonzalez added the team’s technical bench has had enough analysis to see how their opponents play and that they have received reports that some of Orlando Pirates players have sustained injuries.
She then encouraged more Simba fans to come at the venue in big numbers to fill it to its capacity by painting the arena in white and red colours.
“Our opponents have lately not been exposed to many fans in the stadium that is why we want the venue to be full packed to show them that we have our targets in this contest,” she said.
Queried why Orlando Pirates are landing into the country one day before the match (tomorrow), Gonzalez replied that they have got their own plans for choosing to come late and not early as other teams do.
CAF already gave Simba a licence to host the game in full house meaning that they have a privilege to allow 60,000 supporters to rally behind their team as they try to begin the quarter-finals journey in flying colours.
In their group stage duels, Simba were permitted to have 35,000 fans inside the arena which was a big boost to them as they managed to win all their three home matches in front of their passionate supporters.
However, Simba were held 0-0 by Polisi Tanzania while Orlando Pirates also produced a scoreless draw with the bottom-placed Baroka FC.
In terms of standings, Simba are second on the NBC Premier League table with 41 points while in the South Africa Premier Division, Orlando Pirates occupy the fourth slot with 39 points while leaders Mamelodi Sundowns command the league table with 57 points.
By Daily News.
