Jeancy Mboma scored in the 52nd minute to give Singida the advantage, leaving the Brewers needing to overturn the deficit in the return leg in Dar es Salaam on October 25th.
The breakthrough came seven minutes after half-time, with Mboma finding the net to put Singida Black Stars ahead in the East African encounter.
The French tactician acknowledged his team’s strengths in endurance and stamina but pointed to Singida’s superior individual speed and power as a key difference.
Despite playing at home, Tusker wasted a host of chances, with Nigeria striker Victor Mbaoma the main culprit.
'It is a cruel result'
"When you are a team who doesn’t perform well, that’s the beauty of the game, and when you are the best team and lose, you find that it’s cruel," Mette said after the game. "So, yes, it is a cruel result in terms of result.
"But in football you get what you deserve. If we don’t want to score and the opponent uses the only opportunity and scores, even if they were not in a good position to score, they tried, so they deserved to win.
"In terms of 90 minutes plus additional time, we played collectively as a team. The decision is in the last third, and it is more of an individual thing. We need strikers, wingers, attackers to take the destiny of the team in the feat.
"Do you want to be the hero or not? I think the difference was here.
"For example, the player that scored the goal (for Singida), in terms of power and speed, is better than us; we don’t have these types of players.
"As a team, physically no problem, but individually, they have some great players. Tusker is a good team, but Singida has top players."
'I am confident'
Ahead of the return leg in a fortnight, Mette said: "We have a few days to correct that. We will work hard in training sessions, we will do video sessions, but then on Sunday we have to face the mirror: do I want to be the hero or not?
"I think the game was balanced until they scored; they had zero shots on target. Zero opportunities, and created no danger.
"So now we have learnt a lesson; don’t forget we lack experience in the competition as a team, as a club, because Tusker never qualified for the group stage.
"Last year, Singida were in the group stage, so they are more prepared than us, in terms of experience, but at the end of the day it’s football; we pay tickets to watch surprise results, so we will create that next week in Tanzania.
"We know what we are going to face in Tanzania and now it is up to us to be proud enough, brave enough, and to have the will and the desire to make the team win."
On Tusker’s chances to overturn the defeat, Mette said: "We will not change from how we played, and will not become a top team in one week; the difference will be whether we are able to score?
"I’m sure we will; we are able to score two, or at least one if we want to go to penalties. If you remember last year about Nairobi United, it was a 2-0 defeat here, but we won 2-0 away.
"We preserve our chances, because if we conceded a second goal that would be very difficult, but 1-0 is nothing. We can score after two minutes, and then they will open up the game, so I am confident."
The Brewers are Kenya’s only hope in the CAF competitions after Kenyan champions Gor Mahia were tossed out of the Champions League after losing 7-1 on aggregate against Pyramids FC in the first preliminary round.
Tusker qualified for the second preliminary round after defeating Sudan’s Al Ahli Wad Madani with a 3-2 aggregate score.
After a 2-2 draw in the first leg, Tusker won the return leg 1-0 to advance.
