AfricaPress-Tanzania: SIMBA Head Coach Sven Vandenbroeck has apologised for his side’s two back to back losses his team stamped in the Premier League, saying it is difficult for them to digest.
The defending champions lost 1-0 to resilient Ruvu Shooting at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Monday as the marathon towards the league throne gathers momentum.
The nosedive saw Simba surrendering their third place on the ladder to Biashara United who have now bagged 16 points compared to 13 points garnered by the reigning champions.
Simba now sit on fourth place in the 18-team pyramid. Simba will now seek to recover on Friday when they host Mwadui FC at Uhuru Stadium in the city, knowing in advance that they need to stamp tangible results to be able to regain confidence to compete for the league title.
But, at a post-match press briefing, Vandenbroeck was quick to apologise for the two consecutive defeats they have suffered lately hence dropping vital six points in the process.
“First of all, I want to apologise for the two losses in a row to the Simba family and it is very hard for us to digest. If you look at the game, we missed some aggressivess in the first half which was not our usual level of playing.
“The second half was much better as we took some risks but in total, we were not efficient enough to take good results today (Monday). It hurts to all of us,” he said.
He added that he was not sure as to whether the poor performance was contributed by lack of match fitness as they played a number of friendly matches to keep the squad in good shape.
“At this point, it is very difficult to point out what is the problem and if I have to analyse everything, it is something which I cannot share with the members of the media. “According to the way we pushed in the second half, I do not think match fitness is the problem to point at. I think the question is what we have available in the striking position which made me to play with a false number nine,” said the Belgian coach who is searching his second top flight league title with Simba.
On his side, Ruvu Shooting coach Boniface Mkwasa lauded his charges for sticking to his game plan of which he narrated that it worked very well.
“In games like this, it becomes easier for the small team to shine because the big teams always underrate you as such; you have to take advantage of that scenario. “Our game plan was to dominate the midfield play which was amicably fulfilled that is why we created a chance to score the winning goal. But in the second half, we were a bit down as Simba pressured us a lot no wonder we conceded a controversial penalty which they failed to convert,” he said.
He continued: “It was simply football made in Tanzania as we have a squad and technical bench which is comprised of Tanzanians as such, if given priority, domestic players can achieve more like the way you saw.”
His Information Officer, Masau Bwire said after defeating the defending champions, their target now is to clinch the league title at the end of the season.
