LAST Saturday was an extremely consequential day for Tanzanian football as our representatives, Simba SC, were going head-to-head against their Moroccan hosts RS Berkane in the first leg of this season’s perennially enthralling CAF Confederations Cup final, with a lot being at stake.

ancheIndeed, since time immemorial, Tanzanian football sides have been unsuccessfully craving for coveted pieces of silverware that are up for grabs in African football, which makes Simba’s first leg against Berkane last Saturday all the more important.

Sadly though, Simba were displeasingly vanquished 2-nil in that first leg last Saturday, which sets up an utterly make-or-break showdown in the second leg here in Tanzania, which could arguably and fittingly be described as the most significant football duel in recent decades of Tanzanian football.

With the collective hopes of all Tanzanians resting on their shoulders, it is expected that Simba will resolutely do their utmost in a bid to end our decades-old trophy drought on the continental football stage.

Let us now dive into wheelchair tennis on the home turf, which was deservedly in the sporting headlines last week for all the right reasons.

Indeed, our national women’s wheelchair tennis team returned home early last week from Turkey, where they had taken part in the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

Despite failing to do well in the women’s category of the championship, our national women’s wheelchair tennis team still garnered the gong for the most disciplined team in the competition.

It should be recollected that our national women’s wheelchair tennis team were making their debut at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup, which explains their poor displays.

And it should be noted here that any team that lacks exposure to first rate competition across the broad spectrum of sports will always be destined to produce below-par showings in their respective sports championships, whichever sport that may be.

However, a lack of much-needed exposure is not the only impediment bedeviling local women’s wheelchair tennis.

There are other hindrances to the potential flourishing of the sport on our shores.

These obstacles include a conspicuous lack of women’s wheelchair tennis tournaments during the year on the local sports scene and a gross shortage of financial investment into the sport.

In light of all the aforementioned serious problems facing local women’s wheelchair tennis, this writer would like to call upon those figures in the corridors of power on the domestic sports scene to tirelessly strive to resolve all the problems that are holding local women’s wheelchair tennis back.

Let us now return to the ‘beautiful game’, which often serves up such sensational football matches that are akin to the English F.A Cup final, which took place at the iconic Wembley Stadium last Saturday.

Indeed, the high stakes football contest pitted the hugely successful Manchester City against the underdogs, Crystal Palace in the final of global football’s oldest competition.

Despite having the lion’s share of the possession, City sadly in the end came unstuck thanks to a superb strike from Crystal Palace’s striker magician Eberechi Eze, who has Nigerian roots.

Thus, despite being the hot favorites to cart home the trophy, Manchester City were reminded once again that sometimes in football, it is the giant-slayers who astonishingly carry the day.