NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 5- Simba SC head coach Pierre Lechantre has admitted that Kenyan teams will be tough to beat at the Super Cup as they are at a better physical level compared to their Tanzanian counterparts who have just finished their domestic season.
Giants Young Africans and Zanzibar’s Jeshi la Kujenga Uchumi (JKU) have already been eliminated from the tournament by Kakamega Homeboyz and Gor Mahia respectively while Simba had to rely on the penalty lottery to beat Kariobangi Sharks.
“All the teams from Kenya are good teams. They are at a better physical level because they are in the middle of the season while my team and all the teams from Tanzania, we are playing after the end of the championship,” the French coach said.
“My team we have been celebrating winning the Championship for two weeks now and it is not easy to settle the players. You have to have big motivation to win this tournament,” the tactician noted.
He expects a tough tie against Homeboyz when the two sides face off in the semi-finals on Thursday, noting he knows their strengths having watched them eliminate Yanga on Sunday.
“They are a very good team with very fast players and I know it will be tough. Also, I see the players from Gor Mahia, they are very good. I told their coach, he must be very lucky to have such a team with all good players,” he added.
Meanwhile, just like his Gor counterpart Dylan Kerr, Lechantre has blasted the Afraha Stadium playing surface, saying it could not give them an opportunity to play their passing game.
“With the field it’s difficult to play with one touch. It was a big problem for us and with this kind of field you have to play long pass and run which is not our kind of football,” the tactician lamented.
He has however praised his players for their attitude against a tough Sharks side and notes they still have areas to improve on before they face Homeboyz in the last four.
Meanwhile, Kariobangi Sharks head coach William Muluya was left dejected after his side wasted chance after chance and had an even more miserable ending in the penalties in a match they should have taken their chances and won.
He however hopes the tough lessons the boys picked against Simba will spur them on back in their league campaign.
“It is disheartening because sometimes you go back and see the chances you missed and you wonder. We take the lessons from here and move our focus back to the league. Had we scored the chances we had things would have been different,” the tactician noted.
“The positives we pick is on the young boys who came in and did a good. It shows we have a good future ahead. Also, another thing is that if you are given a chance, you have to take it otherwise someone will take it and run away with it like Simba did with the penalties,” Muluya noted.
Sharks will now take their focus back to the Kenyan Premier League and Football Kenya Federation Shield campaigns hoping to have a good season like they did in 2017.
