The Belgian tactician explains that he knew they will not have an easy game in Sokoine against their opponents on Sunday
Simba SC coach Sven Vandenbroeck has admitted he knew they will face a difficult game against Mbeya City in a Mainland Premier League match on Sunday.
The Wekundu wa Msimbazi were forced to use every trick in the book to edge out Mbeya City 1-0 in a match played at Sokoine Memorial Stadium in Mbeya.
Taifa Stars striker and skipper of the team John Bocco was the hero for the champions after he scored the all-important goal in the first half of the match and despite piling pressure in the second period, the match ended 1-0.
The Belgian tactician has now confessed he was afraid they could lose in the match and has further complimented his players for putting up a good show to come out of the match with three points.
“I give a lot of compliments to my team because we set that this would be a tough match and after 90 minutes, we were right about that,” Vandenbroeck said as quoted by Daily News.
“I am very happy with the defensive, mental, and physical output from my players but I am not happy with the technical part...I think we could have cooled down the game more but three points is all that matters and we will now focus on our Wednesday match against KMC.”
Vandebroeck further admitted that his players struggled to deal with second balls something which slowed down their push for goals.
On his part, Mbeya City coach Mathias Lule blamed missed chances for losing the match to Simba.
“For now, we need to learn how to score goals from the good chances we create. We are going to sit down and find the way forward on how to wisely use the sourced chances.
“We always get a chance to enter into the 18-yard box of our opponents but, the main problem is to put the ball behind the net. We must get a long-lasting solution to this.”
Bocco has now scored eight goals so far in this campaign and is leading the scorers’ chart, and his goal came after an assist from Zambian midfielder Clatous Chama.
Simba are now on 29 points and in second position while Yanga are topping the 18-team table with 37 points from 15 points, but their rivals still have two matches in hand.