AfricaPress-Tanzania: YOUNG Africans head coach, Cedric Kaze has said his players deserved to secure victory in the regular 90 minutes of the Mapinduzi Cup semifinal match, but unfortunately they relaxed to force the match into penalty shoot-out.
Yanga beat Azam 5-4 in the penalty shoot-out in Zanzibar on Monday after settling for a 1-1 all draw in the 90 minutes. Azam were down 0-1 in the 51st minute after Tusila Kisinda who was set through by Haruna Niyonzima, scored but Obrey Chirwa pressured Yanga defenders to head home an equaliser four minutes later.
“The intensity of the match was high but the match was very slow,” “We did not pressurise our opponents for more goals, instead we got back to defend,’ “This resulted for Azam to gain confidence to recovery and score an equalizer,” said Burundian.
He has however, hailed his players for a crucial win and most importantly to qualify for the final. “They have done a great job and we will try our best to secure the trophy, that is our target,” he said. His Azam FC counterpart, Zambian George Lwandamina ‘Chicken’ has said that his team has however, been slightly improving especially in their recent matches after a worse performance in some Mainland Premier league outings.
He said that an exhaustion could be one of the reasons for their defeat. Azam beat Malindi on Sunday to set a date their yesterday’s encounter with Yanga “Scientifically, it is not possible for team to play two matches in 48 hours, the players need time to rest,” he said.
The stadium turned into celebration for Yanga as they watered their goalie Farouk Shikhalo by praising him up after clearing two penalties. Azam and Yanga had the first meeting since November 25 where they met in a league tie and Azam lost 1-0.
The loss ended Aristica Cioaba’s reign and George Lwandamina – a former Yanga coach – was appointed in his place. Azam FC goalie, Benedict Haule saved just one penalty taken by Ghanian Michael Sarpong, but he failed to save those from Tusila Kisinda, Congolese Tonombe Mukoko, backs Paul Godfrey ‘Boxer’, Abdallah Shaibu ‘Ninja’ and midfielder , Zawadi Mauya.
Yanga’s goalie saved two penalties taken by Awesu Awesu and Daniel Amoah, but he could not save those from Bruce Kangwa, Ally Niyonzima, Mudathir Yahya and Nicholas Wadada.
