OnSport Reporter
SIMBA Bhora head coach, Joel Luphahla says his boys need to work hard and end the season better than last year but is reserved about his side defending the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) title.
The Shamva-based club are the PSL champions after winning the league last year, making history by becoming the first club to win the championship from Mashonaland West.
They will be representing the country in the 2025-2026 Caf Champions League.
Luphahla took over from Tonderai Ndiraya, who crossed the floor to league debutants Scottland FC.
Asked whether his side had the pedigree to retain the league title, he said when he assumed the job, he knew the risks associated with coaching defending champions.
“It’s difficult to say; but when I took this job I knew the risk that was coming with the job because we were taking over a team that are the defending champions and at the end of the day when they ask you: ‘Coach where do you want to see us at the end of the season?’ I cannot say second because they are the defending champions. So, the risk was there, it’s my first time to be head coach in the PSL. It was going to be difficult but at the end of the day, I cannot sit here and say we are going to defend the championship but we need to work and make sure we finish better than how we finished last season,” Luphahla.
But it will not come easy with the competition that has obtained as the league nears the end of the first half of the season.
Simba Bhora are second on the log table with 29 points from 15 games, have won eight times, drew five and lost two.
