Somalia produced the first biggest upset at the on-going regional CECAFA (Council for East and Central African Football Associations) Senior Challenge Cup on Saturday evening when they beat fancied Tanzania 1-0 at Nakivubo stadium in Kampala. The Somalians, who have always been a punching bag in this tournament and lost their opening tie 2-0 on Thursday to Zanzibar, scored early in the 14th minute through Cisse Abshir and defended well to deny the Tanzanians any chance of having a good start to the tournament.
Not even the present of Tanzania's Kuwait-based professional Danny Mrwanda could help matters as the Taifa Stars team piled pressure on the Somalia side in the second half, but failed to score.
Tanzanian coach Marcio Maximo turned a disappointed man after the match and said he was bitter with his defenders for gifting the Somalian team an easy goal.
The Brazilian coach told Xinhua in an interview Saturday evening that they would face a tall order in the next game because they face Zanzibar, who had already had four points.
"My team needs to raise their game because losing the first game in such a tournament means you have to win all the other games if you are to qualify for the semifinals," said Maximo.
The Somalia coach Mohamed Abdi Farah was a happy man and warned the other two teams of Rwanda and Uganda who have not faced them yet. "We are happy to beat a big side Tanzania. But Rwanda and Uganda should watch out now because we are determined to get to the later stages of this tournament," said Farah.
In an earlier game played on Saturday, hosts Uganda drew 0-0 with Zanzibar. Action returns on Sunday in Group B at Bugembe stadium in Jinja district when Djibouti will face Sudan, and Zambia will battle Burundi.
The GTV sponsored tournament will climax on Jan. 13 with the finals at Mandela national stadium, Namboole. The winner will walk away with 30,000 U.S. dollars, the runner-up 20,000 dollars and the third placed team 10,000 dollars.
Group A has Rwanda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Somalia and hosts Uganda. Group B has Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, Burundi and Djibouti. Zambia was invited to replace Eritrea who withdrew from the championship citing a slippery political environment in the Horn of Africa nation.
Following are the standings after Saturday's games (tabulated under games played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, against, points):
Group A
Uganda 2 1 1 0 4 0 4
Zanzibar 2 1 1 0 2 0 4
Somalia 2 1 0 1 1 2 3
Tanzania 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
Rwanda 1 0 0 1 0 4 0
Group B
Zambia 2 1 1 0 3 0 4
Burundi 1 1 0 0 4 0 3
Kenya 2 0 2 0 0 0 2
Sudan 1 0 1 0 0 0 1
Djibouti 2 0 0 2 7 0 0