ADDIS ABABA – The Addis giants Coffee and Saint George will meet in the Addis Ababa City Cup semi-final on Thursday at the Addis Ababa stadium.
The two giants derby has the capacity to attract huge crowed. On Thursday the stadium is expected to be full to capacity. In the days other game Mekelakeya will play against Sebeta City who beat Wolwallo Adigrat University on Sunday.
St. George reached to this stage after beating Bahir Dar City 3-1 in their third game on Saturday. With this result St. George emerged top of Group A on 6 points. Though they lost 2-1 in their opening match against Mekelakeya, St. George managed to beat Wolkite City and Bahir Dar City by the same 3-1 margin.
Coffee go through to this stage on four points after managing a goalless draw with Electric on Sunday.
The purpose of the Addis City Cup is to raise fund for the Addis Ababa Football Federation, AAFF. In view of this the Thursday play between Coffee and St. George generate a huge sum of money from the gate fee.
So far there has never been crowed disturbance in the group stage of the Addis City Cup. Fearing a possible crowed violence the schedule of the City Cup was postponed two times.
The Addis City Cup was originally set a week before last Saturday but postponed for Thursday. When the game was expected to start last Thursday it was again postponed for Saturday.
The reason for successive postponement was security, the organizers announced. The Police officially disclosed, according to the organizers, they do not show up at the stadium on Saturday, November 2 claiming shortage of man power to keep law and order.
But in the group stage there was no sign of violence among the fans. This was seen as a good sign for the season’s football competition.
The Addis giants Coffee and St. George appeared in this contest with new coaches. St. George brought in the second Serbian Coach Srdan Zevojhor after Mucho. The 47-year old Serbian signed a two years contract with the club. He previously coached in Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
Coffee’s newly appointed coach is Kasaye Arage who was their former player. This was the second time for Kasaye to be in charge of Coffee, it was learnt.
The Ethiopian Herald November19, 2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
