Superior as they think they are, Dar es Salaam-based archrivals Simba SC and Young Africans SC (Yanga) and must learn on how to come to terms with reality when they lose to perceived or presumed unheralded teams.
It is a habit that has evolved into a fully-fledged tradition for the said premiership giants to embark on witch-hunting whenever they are subjected to defeats in the Mainland Tanzania premier soccer league.
Very rarely do these teams accept defeats, particularly when they are neck and neck in the race for the championship title, often pretending to forget that in soccer teams can win, draw or lose.
On the contrary, the two Dar es Salaam teams often believe they deserve to bulldoze whichever side they meet in the league no matter how formidable the opposition is on the field.
Yanga and Simba have become so big-headed as to think it is always either of them that ought to win the championship, season in and season out.
With time and the dynamic nature of soccer in today’s world, the attitude has no merit – if we are to learn from bigger giants like Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Whenever Simba or Yanga lose a match or the title, the next thing is not for officials or their technical managers to investigate where they went wrong but to rush into witch-hunting.
But why should officials and fans resort to this conclusion? Very obviously, they might have been or involved in trying to fix results and frustration mounts when they don’t have such an opportunity or there is no room for such practice to prevail.
Very often the league becomes highly impressive and thrilling near the end when teams have to genuinely battle to earn decisive points either for title chase or to avoid relegation.
It happens in this way when there are no half measures and teams get results deriving from the true quality of their prowess. Surprisingly, one finds the two giants posting suspiciously big wins over unheralded teams at the beginning of the league but later fail even to post draws against the same teams they walloped earlier.
It may sound strange for a ‘giant’ to wreak havoc on the opposition at the beginning of the league and eventually fail to sparkle, actually easily conceding defeat, but that is the nature of soccer!
Time has come for Simba and Yanga to disabuse themselves of the belief that they are invincible, and instead work harder and better to realise genuine victories and glory.
They should understand that levelling allegations of underperformance against their players constitutes the worst form of demoralisation and is outright unprofessional.
On the other hand, accepting results is the best way forward as it serves as the springboard from which to inspire players into better performance.
Only when officials have impeccable proof pointing to improper conduct such as poor officiating or match-fixing, should complaints relating to match results be raised and investigated.
Yanga and Simba boast decades of experience and must show the way by appreciating the fact that they are great clubs all right but that it is not always that they will sparkle.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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