Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA’S Head Coach Sven Vandenbroeck gave big compliment to his players after a hard earned 1-0 victory against KMC at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.
A controversial penalty which was expertly taken by substitute Meddie Kagere was enough to give Simba the narrow win which saw them reaching 32 points to sit comfortably on the second slot of the league table.
The goal was Kagere’s 50th in the unfolding Mainland Premier League and he is still looking sharp to defend the golden boot award for three consecutive seasons if he manages to emerge the top goal scorer at the end of the marathon.
It was one of the entertaining Premier League matches as KMC were tactically a good side too as they were able to silence Simba lethal players like Clatous Chama and Louis Miquissone whose venom was not that dangerous on the day.
For KMC, it was a setback for them to drop crucial three points as they now sit fifth on the log with 21 points from 14 played matches which is not that bad at all provided they put heads up for other upcoming league clashes.
At a post-match briefing, Vandenbroeck could not help but heaped praises on players saying they put in everything to source the slim win from a side he described as one of best teams in the top flight contest.
“Actually, I am very happy because before the game, I knew that it would be a tricky one. For me, KMC is one of the better teams in the league which plays technical football. “I think 90 minutes showed us that we really had to give everything to get that victory and sometimes, victories in these tough games make you champions. If you can win a game which is 50- 50, it makes you go far,” said him.
He added: “The three changes I did were because of injuries but the technical bench and all the players did everything they could today (Wednesday).”
He also pointed out that because of exhaustion; about six of his players lay on the ground after the match saying that was a sign of playing two tough games within a short space of time.
His counterpart for KMC Habib Kondo said they tried everything within their reach to win the game but, in the end, the final output did not go their way.
He also defended his move to substitute Mohamed Samatta in the second half of the game saying he provided the workrate of 85 per cent hence he had to be replaced to let his colleague contribute a bit more than he did.
His veteran goalkeeper Juma Kaseja who had a good game on the day repeatedly denied the legality of the spot kick saying from the way he looked at it, there was no hand ball in the penalty box.
“From what I saw, there was no hand ball in the box but because the referee is too a human being, such mistakes are likely to happen since we are all prone to mistakes,” he said.
Kaseja also narrated that the way they played was a copy and paste from what they were doing during training sessions prior to the match itself.
