AfricaPress-Tanzania: SIMBA Coach Didier Gomes Da Rosa said he rotated his squad against African Lyon in order to reserve other players prior to their top flight league match versus JKT Tanzania tomorrow.
The Azam Sports Federation Cup (ASFC) defending champions defeated African Lyon 3-0 on Friday at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam to cruise into the next round of the contest.
On Sunday (February 28, 2021), Simba will host JKT Tanzania at the same venue in the city before they travel to Sudan to face Al-Merrikh in their third match of the CAF Champions League on Saturday.
A brace from Ibrahim Ajibu and a sweet contribution by Perfect Chikwende gave the hosts a deserved victory as they want to defend the ASFC title for the second time in a row.
“It was very important for some players to rest today (Friday) because we have another important match on Monday (tomorrow). I am satisfied with this win and general performance of the team,” he said.
He added: “Of course, at Simba, we have a big squad not only the first eleven. We have 30 important players in the squad hence on Monday others will get a chance to play.”
About his decision to introduce skipper John Bocco in the final stages of the match, Didier said it was good to feature him as one way to facilitate his recovery.
“Bocco is a very good player and for sure, we need him for all our games,” the Frenchman trainer who is yet to taste defeat at the helm of Simba narrated.
He also hailed the performance of Chikwende and MirajiAthumani saying they were good on the day while insisting that despite being pleased with the general workrate of his team, there are still other areas he needs to work on ahead of their forthcoming encounters.
On his part, owner of African Lyon RaheemKangezi ‘Zamunda’ congratulated his players for the good fight even though they ended up losing the match.
“As you saw, we played well against Simba only that they were able to utilise well mistakes we made thereby we got punished in the end,” he said.
He added that his team has no official sponsors but they do get assistance from the good networks they have made with sport stakeholders.
“What we are doing is simply to implement government’s efforts to uplift sports development, that is why we have been able to produce many players in the league,” he said.
