Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: SIMBA SC Head Coach Sven Vandenbroeck said beating Young Africans was the most important thing to his side following a deserved 4-1 win in the Azam Sports Federation Cup (ASFC), semifinals on Sunday.
Goals netted by Gerson Fraga, Clatous Chama, Louis Miquissone and Mzamiru Yassin were enough to navigate Simba into the final as Feisal Salum netted a consolation goal for his team in the 70th minute.
The triumph saw Simba booking a ticket to face Namungo FC in the final match to be played at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Sumbawanga on August 2nd this year.
It seems the Msimbazi Street giants finally have got the answers they used to ask to their opponents (Yanga) on how they managed to record a 2-2 draw in the first top flight league encounter and a 1-0 loss in the second derby of this season.
But, reacting after the game, Vandenbroeck said his side deserved the victory saying Yanga enjoyed the match in the first five minutes and later, they were able to dominate them.
“This is the tempo we always want to keep on because we still have four league games to play and one final match. We should not drop this tempo and we need to keep it always”.
“We did not deserve to lose this match because we were better on statistics in two previous games we played against them in terms of ball possession, shots on target and off target”.
“Sometimes in football, you lose games that you do not deserve to lose and other times you win a game with high score margin but the most important thing today (Sunday) is that we have managed to win against Yanga,” said Vandenbroeck.
On his part, Yanga trainer Luc Eymael said it was a sad day for the fans, sponsors, players and technical team hence they need to look back in the mirror.
“We hardly played today (Sunday) and I told the boys to play like men in this game but things did not go our way. I have told them that this happens in football but it is just unfortunate that it has happened in a derby game,” said he.
He continued: “I hope my players will bounce back soon and try to show everybody that they are real men to try to put pressure on Azam to finish on second place this season.”
He again disclosed that his side lacked team unity saying they cannot win against any team if they lack quality on the pitch while insisting that some players approached the game with much confidence.
With Simba making it into the ASFC finals, it is now official that Namungo FC will be the country’s envoys in the CAF Confederation Cup next season for the first time in the club’s history.
This is so because Simba are already Mainland Premier League champions hence they will feature in CAF Champions League (CAF CL) as such, Namungo automatically qualify for the lucrative opportunity of trading in international games.
