THIS Sunday will be D-Day for all unbridled local football aficionados as our national team, the Taifa Stars, will come up against the traditional giants DR Congo in what is a key 2025 AFCON Qualifier with a lot being on the line.

o Indeed, in the DR Congo, the Taifa Stars will face-off against the table-toppers of their group, which to all those still in the dark is Group H.

 Group H consists of the DR Congo, Tanzania, Guinea, and Ethiopia.

With only two games of the qualifiers having been played, the DR Congo is comfortably ensconced in first place in the group with six points while the Taifa Stars are in second place with four points.

It should be acknowledged that if the DR Congo can see off the Stars in the former’s backyard, then this would be a heavy blow to the Taifa Stars’ chances of successfully progressing to the 2025 AFCON Finals.

As we all wait on tenterhooks for this weekend’s all-important football duel, one would like to call upon the Taifa Stars to head into the football contest with a potent blend of self-assuredness and determination, which should hold them in good stead.

Let us now sink our teeth into this season’s CAF inter-club competitions which have now excitingly arrived at the group stage.

Indeed, the draws for the group stage of the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup are both scheduled to take place next Monday.

It should be recalled that while Young Africans are our flag-bearers in the CAF Champions League, Simba SC are our country’s representatives in the CAF Confederations Cup.

Naturally, the near-fanatical fans of both local football behemoths will be waiting with bated breath to see which groups their beloved clubs will be drawn in.

It is of course a given that both Simba and Young Africans will be fervently hoping that they can avoid the appropriately dubbed groups of death, which consist of the continent’s leading football sides.

Whichever way things may unfold, though, one hopes that both Young Africans and Simba can fabulously slay the huge giants that might threaten to block their progress in CAF’s inter-club championships this season.

And, it is unquestionably a truism that all Tanzanians will be keeping their fingers crossed as we approach next Monday, which is when the group stage draws of both the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup will be held.

Let us now switch focus to the national U-20 football team, the Ngorongoro Heroes, who are presently readying themselves for the Under-20 AFCON CECAFA Qualifiers, which will be staged in Dar es Salaam from October 6 to 20.

Under the tutelage of their head coach Boniface Mkwasa, the Ngorongoro Heroes have been preparing for some time now for the important task at hand.

In 2021, Tanzania admirably qualified for the Under-20 AFCON but sadly, they were ousted from the competition at the group stage.

Here’s hoping then that the Ngorongoro Heroes can wonderfully rise to the occasion on home soil.