Pluijm: It’s too early to talk of title
Danny Lyanga of Simba Sports Club (left) vies for the ball with Mbuyu Twite of Dar es Salaam Young Africans when the teams clashed in the Mainland Vodacom Premier League derby. Yanga won 2-0. PHOTO|ANTHONY SIAME
What you need to know:
Yanga continued their superiority over their traditional rivals, Simba Sports Club, in the Saturday derby played at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam Young Africans’ head coach, Dutch Hans Pluijm, has said that it’s too early for him to talk of the Premier league title despite beating Simba 2-0 to go top of the table.
Yanga continued their superiority over their traditional rivals, Simba Sports Club, in the Saturday derby played at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
Yanga also beat Simba by the same margin when the two sides met last September in the first round of the Mainland Vodacom Premier League.
Speaking after the match, Pluijm, whose side has lost only a single match from 19 outings, said that his players utilised well the chances that came their way.
“We took advantage of our chances to score goals, though Simba also played well,” Pluijm said adding that the marathon to the title was still tough inspite of the fact that they’re leading the table.
“We still have to work hard to win the remaining matches and widen the gap between us and the rest. But I hail my players for the job done well.”
Commeting on whether Abdi Banda’s red card made things easy for them to beat their opponents, Pluijm said that the remaining 10 on the pitch could have held them.
“That is a minor thing in football, it happens.
We have regularly seen a team with ten players beating a full squad of an opponent side. We were not favoured by Simba’s ten-man setback at all, but we utilised our chances well,” he said.
Banda was sent off in the 25th minutes for a second bookable offence after he fouled Ngoma.
Yanga have 11 matches to play before the league climaxes, Simba have 10 while Azam have 12.
The victory took Yanga to the top of the table with 46 points as Azam beat Mbeya City 3-0 to occupy the second position with 45 points. Simba dropped to the third place with 45 points.
The Saturday’s battle saw Zimbabwean Donald Ngoma give the Jangwani-based club a lead in the 49th minute.
Simba’s Ugandan coach Jackson Mayanja had no words to say, other than asserting that it was a match like any other.
The loss was the first for the Ugandan coach since he took over the reigns of Simba Sports Club from British Dylan Kerr.
