What Simba must do to reach knockout stage

Dar es Salaam. Football coaches and analysts in the country have urged the Simba SC technical bench to work on three things if they are to sail through to the knockout stage of the Caf Confederation Cup.

Simba will play their final and must win match on April 3 against Union Sportive de la Gendarmerie (USGN) of Niger at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam. Simba are placed third with seven points in group D.

A prominent football analyst and a former player of the national football team (Taifa Stars), Ally Mayay, opined that the area that the technical bench of the club are supposed to work on is the defence line.

He said Simba’s defence department has of late made glaring mistakes in many of their matches, resulting in goals of the same type to be scored by their opponents.

Mayay elaborated that Simba conceded defeats in the tournament as a result of cross or corner kick balls that also affected them in their matches of the Mainland Tanzania Premier League.

According to Mayay, Simba’s opponents usually take advantage of the mistakes that are made by left-back Mohammed ‘Tshabalala’ Hussein and right-back Shomari Kapombe, when they overlap to support their striking force.

He stated that the problem comes when their attacks are abortive and their opponents start applying counterattacks through the left or the right flanks before reaching Simba’s goal and making cross-kicks that usually cause trouble to Simba’s defence and their goalie.

“There was a certain match in which Simba’s defence allowed in goals through throws-in...and the problem is still there, so it is the duty of coach Pablo and his technical bench to ensure that they rectify the situation,” advised Mayay.

He went on to advise that Simba’s midfielders are supposed to make a coverage in order to prevent counterattacks when the two defenders overlap.

He also said the central defenders of Simba are supposed to be very keen on cross-kick balls by their opponents, explaining that such balls very often result in goals.

“Simba have tall defenders such as Joash Onyango, Kennedy Juma, Henoc Inonga Baka, Pascal Wawa and others, who can thwart dangers caused by cross-kick balls, but that has been different,” he said.

For his part, the former head coach of the Copa Coca Cola U-17 national football team, Abel Mtweve, said Simba are supposed to work on the midfield department.

He said the first leg against USGN was tough because most of the players of Niger’s are strong with a good scoring record.

According to Mtweve, Simba will have to defend and search for victory in order to qualify for the next stage.

“They have to have midfielders, who are creative enough and not otherwise,” said Mtweve.