A 1-0 loss to Mtibwa Sugar in the 2020 Mapinduzi Cup final at Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar on Monday night has created a huge stir at Simba.
However, skipper John Bocco said they need to switch a focus to the Mainland Premier League and ensure they keep winning their matches. Simba will face Mbao FC at the CCM Kirumba Stadium in Mwanza tomorrow.
A 38th minute goal by Awadh Juma was enough for the Morogoro-based side to be crowned new champions of the tournament which drew eight teams, and was played through knockout system.
The defeat led Simba to a total confusion, with the Chairman of the club’s Board of Directors Mohamed Dewji alias ‘MO’ posting a tweet on Monday night that he has stepped down from the post and he will focus on investing on infrastructure and youth academy at the club.
He wrote ‘It’s a pity Simba couldn’t win. After paying salaries of close to 4bn/- a year. I resign as the chair of the board and will remain as an investor. Simba Nguvu Moja.
I will focus on developing infrastructure and a youth Academy!
However, Dewji posted another tweet yesterday reading ‘What happened to my accounts yesterday was unfortunate. Tuko pamoja. We’re going back to the league strong.’
Dewji also lauded Mtibwa Sugar for winning the title.
Speaking after the clash, Bocco, who was introduced in the second half, said luck was not on their side to win the silverware hence they just need to focus much on the Mainland Premier League fixtures.
“We tried everything to win the game but that never materialized because our opponents used well the scoring chance they made to get the winning goal,” Bocco said.
He added that the most important thing for them is to resolve the tactical challenges, which emerged on the day to do well in other upcoming competitions they will be exposed to in order to excel.
His teammate Erasto Nyoni said they have learnt many things from the tournament, insisting that the displayed shortfalls will be worked upon by the technical bench.
“We created many scoring chances but we were just unfortunate to turn them into goals, while our opponents were luck to score the only goal,” Nyoni said.
On his part, Mtibwa Sugar Coach Zuberi Katwila revealed that they respected Simba throughout the encounter a thing he said was a key factor to their victory.
“Whenever you play against a good team, the most important thing is to respect them and make sure that you avoid committing silly mistakes,” Katwila said.
He added: “If you respect Simba, you can get good results but if you underrate them, you can be punished any moment during the match. We respected them and that was a secret behind our success.”
Moreover, Katwila hailed the entire set up of the just ended tournament, saying it was friendly to all teams, which took part in the tournament.
Katwila then vowed to direct the perfect performance shown in Mapinduzi Cup towards the league.
The game’s goal scorer Juma reiterated that their game plan worked better for them insisting that they successfully applied on the pitch what they were tasked to do.
“We were told to use defending approach and rely much on counterattacks something which worked pretty well for us,” Juma, who smartly twisted and turned Simba defenders inside the box before unleashing a low strike into the back of the net said.
His colleague Abdulhalim Humid (midfielder) said their semifinal match against Young Africans was the toughest tie in all the three games played en-route to the finals.
“Our coach told us that we already played the finals against Yanga and today’s (Monday) results have fulfilled such claims,” the former KMC player said.
