Simba-Namungo tie heralds today’s fixture
THE 12th round of NBC Premier League continues with two epic fixtures as Simba welcome Namungo at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam while Tanzania Prisons host Geita Gold at Sokoine Stadium in Mbeya today.
The league marathon has put on a serious face with each team on the log eyeing to pocket essential maximum points to keep ascending up the ladders.
For Simba, they are aiming to produce a second successive victory after defeating the bottom -placed Ihefu 1-0 in their previous game at the same venue with Senegalese player, Pape Sakho netting the winner.
A win to Msimbazi Street Reds will drive them to 24 points and they will remain on the right path in chasing for the season’s Championship while a success to Namungo will take them to 18 points from eleven matches.
The Lindi-based outfits suffered a 2-1 loss to Mbeya City in their previous league encounter at Sokoine Stadium in Mbeya.
In his remarks yesterday, Simba trainer Juma Mgunda forecasted a tough match but insisted that his charges are in good shape ready to carry the day and annex three points.
“Each game in the league is stiff and highly challenging and our preparations have been focused on victories even though we respect our opponents as they too have a quality squad,” said him.
He also cemented that his side is still in the championship race and that they will not surrender to search for the season’s title until the last game of the campaign while insisting that they are taking each assignment seriously.
“Most people are questioning about the narrow wins we are recording in the league…what I want to emphasize here is that we play against teams which are also looking for three points. In such doing, it becomes very difficult to produce a comfortable victory like the way people see it.
“To be honest, the league is very tough and as time goes, the race is becoming extremely hard to manage,” said Mgunda who also revealed that he has a tough squad but most of his players are on injury list.
On his part, Namungo Assistant Coach Shadrack Nsajigwa said they have had ample preparation period of at least seven days which he pointed out that it is enough to face a team of Simba status.
“I must admit that we usually find it hard to register good results versus Simba but this time, things are different because we had enough preparations unlike previously when we were having limited preps.
“We have put in place our game plan of which we believe that it will help us a lot to generate positive results tomorrow (today). In football, anything can happen and people should not judge us basing on past performances,” said him.
At Sokoine Stadium in Mbeya, both Tanzania Prisons and Geita Gold have 14 points after eleven games hence the scramble for maximum points is likely to be fierce.
