Africa-Press – Tanzania. AFTER succumbing to his first Premier League defeat, Simba Head Coach Didier Gomes said lack of commitment by his charges in the first half contributed a lot to the loss.
Simba lost 1-0 to their traditional rivals Young Africans at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam over the weekend in a tense super heavyweight match which was witnessed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
A deflected 11th minute strike from Zawadi Mauya was enough to send the celebration gift to the Jangwani Street based club and it delayed the Reds from being declared champions prematurely.
“We did not play very well and we lacked commitment in the first half. The second half was better we had many opportunities and dominated it very well. “We are sad because we could have won the league in front of our fans in a big match… we are very disappointed to our fans,” Gomes said.
He added that in the first half, they did not play well and his boys did not ask for the ball as they usually do hence making a room for their opponents to punish them.
“I think we conceded 12 corner kicks in the first half, it is the first time. I do not know maybe I made some mistakes in the preparation of the match, I am a coach and I must take responsibility,” the Frenchman said.
He then conceded that they watched many games for Yanga and expected to encounter the same system but he never expected to see his team beginning the game on the back foot.
“The second half was better but we failed to win. We play KMC in our next match and it will be very important for us to win the league,” he said.
His skipper John Bocco revealed that they conceded the loss and they will work on the upcoming league encounters to gather more points. “We prepared well for the match but our opponents were much better especially in the first half and they used to their advantage one mistake we made to score a goal,” Bocco said.
In his remarks, Yanga Head Coach Nasreddine Nabi narrated that the game was meant to show how big his team is despite recording unconvincing results in previous duels.
“Simba have got dangerous players but our mission was to ensure that they should not be able to break us that is why we played with determination,” he said.
On his part, Mauya who scored the only goal on the day said it was a great gift to their fans and he was happy to enter in history books of scoring in a derby.
“For now, our focus is on the next to league games and about the finale of Azam Sports Federation Cup (ASFC), the coach will work on it,” the former Kagera Sugar midfielder said.
Up next, Yanga will host Ihefu on July 14th at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in the city before traveling to play Dodoma Jiji in their last game of the season at Jamhuri Stadium on July 18th.
