‘It was hallmark of true derby’

Simba SC and Young Africans SC coaches have described the Sunday’s premier league crush between the two giants as a hallmark of a true derby.

The two teams played out to a 1-1 draw in a thrilling match at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Young Africans Head Coach Nasreddine Nabi described the 1-1 draw with Simba as a deservedly fair result for the teams insisting that he is going to sort out flaws displayed by his charges.

The two giants shared spoils after a fierce 90-minute battle at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam over the weekend as they remain tied at 14 points apiece after a six-match onslaught.

Simba seized the lead via speedy Ghanaian winger Augustine Okrah in the 15th minute before the hosts reacted at the stroke of halftime courtesy of a smartly taken set-piece by Stephanie Aziz Ki.

The Jangwani street giants have since played 43 Premier League matches without conceding a defeat as their unbeaten status from last season continues to uphold.

Their next match is against KMC tomorrow at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in the city in another entertaining league match as KMC seem to be in good shape this season as they defeated Azam 2-1 in the previous encounter.

“It is true that we usually concede counter-attack goals and we are going to analyse this with players to see how best we can solve the problem,” he said.

Additionally, he pointed out that his wingers were delaying to retreat when under attack especially in the last ten minutes when Simba deployed two strikers Habib Kyombo and Moses Phiri.

“This transition of Simba made us lose midfield dominance hence the reason we brought on Gael Bigirimana to try to strengthen the midfield section,” he remarked.

His counterpart Juma Mgunda who is also enjoying unbeaten run at the helm of the Msimbazi Street Reds in all competitions, reiterated that it was a very competitive match as each side battled to claim maximum points.

“There are good things which emerged to our team of which we must keep doing them in our upcoming matches while at the same time solving the setbacks which surfaced,” he said.

Mgunda’s next league match is on Thursday when they face Azam in a commonly dubbed ‘Mzizima Derby’ with the latter coming from a 2-1 loss to KMC.

As it stands, Simba lead the table with 14 points seconded by Yanga who also have annexed 14 points from six games each.