Young Africans (Yanga SC) assistant coach Boniface Mkwasa has blamed the team’s shock defeat against KMC in a friendly on laxity from his players.
The Jangwani Street-based giants suffered a 3-0 defeat against KMC in a match played at Uhuru Stadium, which both teams used to gauge their players ahead of the Mainland Premier League resumption on June 13.
KMC were the better side from the onset as they troubled Yanga, who looked out of place, but it took the former until the 45th minute to take a deserved lead when Sadala Lipangile slotted home using his right foot.
KMC then doubled their lead in the added minutes of the first half when Charles Ilanfya latched onto a through-ball to sneak it past Yanga keeper Metacha Mnata for a 2-0 lead at the half-time break.
After the resumption, Mkwasa opted to ring a few changes to help reduce the deficit but KMC remained the dominant side and they wrapped up the win with a well taken free-kick courtesy of Hassan Kabunda in the 65th minute.
Mkwasa has now admitted they lost the match because they played without urgency and praised his opponents for using their chances to win the game.
“The big thing is we have lost the match and when you look at it we lost because of our own mistakes,” Mkwasa told reporters after the friendly.
“We did not have the urgency to move forward and get the goals and also gave them the ball easily, and this allowed them to punish us, what they also did is they used their chances well and deserved to win, congratulations to them.”
On whether he has enough time to rectify the mistakes from his squad ahead of their first league match, Mkwasa said: “We need to improve on our strength and fitness, ahead of our next match but we still have time to rectify the mistakes we committed today [Sunday].
“The most important thing, for now, is to push the players to improve on their fitness and return the flair that was missing in the match.”
Meanwhile, KMC coach Habibu Kondo said he was impressed with his charges for playing according to instructions.
‘It is the result we knew we will get because we have been together for a while now and the boys are looking sharp and good to play,” Kondo told reporters.
Yanga will face Mwadui FC in their first league match on June 14.