Galaxy bemoan Simba hospitality
Kabelo Boranabi | Tuesday March 5, 2024 09:12
The local champions were in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, over the weekend and were hammered 6-0 by Simba in the tie played at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Galaxy Stars were desperate for a win in order to have a chance to advance into the final eight of the competition for the first time in club's and local football history.
The tie was also an exciting one as the fans in Tanzania were eager to get revenge over the local side as Galaxy had eliminated Simba two years back. Reports arose in East Africa that Galaxy were trying under-hand tricks ahead of the tie. The local side were accused of tiptoeing into Tanzania while also being blamed for not alerting their opponents and hosts of their lodging and traveling.
It reached boiling point on match day as the Galaxy contingent clashed with security personnel at the stadium.
The videos currently circulating on social media show that Galaxy players and staff being pushed by the security personnel as they attempted to walk into the pitch. Galaxy's pre-match rituals including walkabouts were heavily disturbed. In one of the videos, a security personnel was seen picking up a corner flag and attempting to hit of one of the people from Galaxy's contingent. In his response to the journalists' inquiries in a post match conference, Ramoreboli was not impressed with the security detail at the stadium.
The one-time league championship winning coach said the debacle began from the hotel to the stadium. 'What were they supposed to do when they are being attacked? So they were supposed to keep quiet when they were attacked? They were supposed to keep quiet when the door was closed for them when they were supposed to get into the stadium? Whose responsibility was it because we were the away team and the security guys attacked them, who was supposed to protect them because the same security attacked them,' he said.
'We had to protect ourselves and what were we supposed to do because the people who were hired to protect both teams were only attacking us. Do you know how many injuries we have? We were supposed to sit and fold our arms when we were attacked if it was Simba in Botswana I doubt you will be happy,' Ramoreboli addressed the journalists.
The gaffer further hinted that the proceedings had some impact on his team's display on the afternoon. 'It is unfortunate that we did not get the best performance that we usually get from this team. As a coach you will try to do a proper analysis tactically and try not to mix what happened on the field and off the field. At the end of the day we can sit and say this and that has happened but there are so many things that tactically we could have done better,' Ramoreboli said. It remains to be seen if Galaxy will officially protest against Simba as the club public relations' officer, Tankiso Morake, had not responded to SportMonitor's questionnaire. Galaxy finished bottom of the group but made an improvement from their last group stages' appearance.