Cioba: Azam FC coach unmoved by team’s display in friendly draw

Azam FC coach Aristica Cioba has pleaded with the fans to remain calm after his team managed a 0-0 draw against Transit Camp in a friendly to gauge the squad ahead of the Mainland Premier League's resumption.

The friendly played at Azam Complex on Saturday night saw the ‘Ice Cream Makers’ fail to find the back of the net and their overall display was not to satisfaction of many supporters.

The Romanian believes the friendly gave him a good opportunity to gauge the players, and fans should not be worried as they head to their first league match against Mbao FC on June 14.

“It was the kind of build-up I had wanted to check on my players and I am happy they are all looking good despite not winning or finding the back of the net,” Cioba told reporters after the match.

“We needed to play a high-quality match and Transit gave us the kind of game I was looking for, the fans should not get worried because this was just a friendly and the league proper starts in June 14 and that is when they will see the real Azam.”

In a recent interview, Cioba remained confident of catching up with run-away leaders Simba SC when the league resume.

The ‘Ice-Cream Makers’ are second on the table, 17 points behind Simba, who have 71 points, while Young Africans (Yanga SC) are third, though they still have a game in hand.

Despite the huge number of points separating the two sides, the Romanian coach is not giving up and revealed they can still catch up with Simba with nine rounds of matches remaining to the end of the season.

“The league is not finished, we have another 10 games to play and that is 30 points if you win all matches,” Cioba told reporters.

“I can see everybody talking about Simba winning the title, yes! They have the advantage but it is not over yet. We have the same number of matches to play and anything can happen in between.”

Cioba, who rejoined the team five days ago from his native country where he relocated to after the league took a break in mid-March owing to the coronavirus pandemic, however, admitted the remaining matches will not be easy.

“Our plans remain the same…to win the title but we will also battle to settle for the second position if the first plan fails,” Cioba concluded.