Zerdab is the only threat at the moment after the club’s leading hitman Mohamed Ndoye has been ruled out of the clash after accumulating two yellow cards. Ndoye, however, is standing 6th in the race for Algeria golden boot while Zerdab is placed 8th in the goal-scoring race.
Ndoye, a Senegal national, is currently the club’s top scorer with 9 goals. The chase for the golden boot in Algerian Professional League is jointly led by Mohamed Tiaiba of RC Relizane and Mohamed Zabiaa of MC Oran who have each netted 13 goals.
Most top scorers come from Algerian giants JS Kabyle, NA Hussein Dey, MC Oran and USM Algiers. As a new team making a debut to the continental level championship, Moulodia Olympique Bejaia (MOB) stunned African soccer world when they eliminated Tunisian giants Esperance in the top eight play-off.
The team’ s website announced on Monday that the central defender Zidane Mebarakou and the Senegalese centre forward, Mouhamed Ndoye will miss the team’s first leg home match against Tanzanian envoys after being slapped two yellow cards in their last 16 matches.
The club worries the absence of the players, both very crucial for the club might hamper the team’s performance on Friday. In their attempt to reinforce their defence line, the Algerian side announced Lyes Benhaha, a new goalkeeper’s coach effective from this week.
The goalkeepers are Chamseddine Rahmani, Amara Daif and Yacine Sidi Salah. Meanwhile, Yanga players have continued with intensive training in Antalya, Turkey ahead of their Sunday encounter with MOB.
The club’s publicity secretary, Jerry Muro said yesterday that the players were forced to have morning and night training sessions in what the team’s tactician; Hans van der Pluijm claims to acclimatise players with floodlights encounters. Yanga will play MO Bejaia at 12,000-capacity Olympique Stadium at 22:00 in Algeria time equivalent to midnight in East African time.
“They are training, especially for the night encounter in trying to make players accustomed to play under floodlights,” said Muro. Adding, Muro said over 40 supporters have so register to travel to Algeria to cheer their team in Algeria as more were expected to join the bandwagon.
According to Muro, the team of supporters was expected to leave the country on Saturday ahead of the match the following day.
Yanga head coach Hans van Pluijm is not taking anything for granted and uses a training in Turkey to get away from all the destructions in the Tanzanian capital by fully focusing on the daunting assignment.
The Dutch tactician has included the newly signed quartet of Andrew Vincent (Mtibwa), Juma Mahadhi (Coastal Union), Benno Kakolanya (Prisons) and Hassan Kessy (Simba) as part of the travelling squad as they look to get familiar to the proceedings at the yellow and green machine.
A good start in the group stage will be key to Yanga’s ambitions of making it to the final four and indeed after their game against Bejaia, Pluijm’s side will return to Turkey to continue their training camp in preparation for yet another stern test in TP Mazembe in Dar es Salaam on June 28.
These two matches will go a long way in determining the fate of East Africa’s only representatives in the continental competition at this stage. Yanga saw off Cercle de Joachim of Mauritius 3-1 on aggregate in the Caf Champions League preliminary round to set up a date with Rwandan champions APR.
Pluijm’s side won 3-2 on aggregate against the army side in the first round to set up a date with eight time Caf Champions League winners Al Ahly of Egypt in the second round.
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