The name Young Africans has traditionally been able to shake East Africa effortlessly since the club was formed in 1935 in the background of emancipating the locals from the chains of colonialism.
It is the club that defines the country’s struggles and has a strong political connection to the history of Tanzania.
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Their rivalry with Simba is intense and what will set them miles apart from their eternal enemies is lifting their first continental title.
Yanga have now come so close that all they need to do is avoid giving away their 2-0 lead from the first leg in facing Marumo Gallants at Royal Bafokeng on Wednesday evening.
This is ‘Timu ya Wananchi’.
They won their 29th league title over the weekend widening the gap they enjoy at the top over Simba to seven.
This evening they aim to get close to their first ever final in the bid for the trophy and the prizemoney of USD1. 25 million (approx. R24 million).
After sealing their title defence on Saturday afternoon with a 4-2 win over Dodoma Jiji in Dar es Salaam, Yanga were already at the airport at 04h00 the next morning for a flight that took them to Adidas Ababa, Ethiopia.
From there they then connected to OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg which took them five hours.
Yanga had to take the longer route due to the scarcity of direct flights between Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg.
The plan for Yanga was to get to Rustenburg as early as possible to enable them enough time to recover.
"Our journey started at 04h00 and got to the airport in Johannesburg around 13h00 but we couldn’t get to the hotel until 18h30.
"That means we were travelling for 14 hours which was the whole of Sunday gone.
"We arrived here only having match day minus two and one left before the match.
"The challenge with travelling in Africa is that commercial flights from one country to another are not frequent which forces you to travel via other places.
"However, with the North African clubs they can afford to charter a flight and so travel directly from one place to the other," explains Cedric Kaze, the club’s assistant coach who doubles up as technical director.
"It is a little bit cold here in Rustenburg and the other issue for us was that on Saturday we became champions.
"So, if we had allowed the player to go away for a night or two then it would have been catastrophic because they would have gone out to celebrate.
"You never know how players will celebrate and the challenge is that when they come back some of them would be in a very bad condition.
"Luckily, we have arrived here in Rustenburg and found the facilities all top class including the training grounds here at Royal Marang Hotel," says Kaze.
Kick-off is at 18:00.
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