February 12, 2020
After two knock-out rounds, the 2020/21 CAF Champions League entered the groups stages with the final 16 sides competing in 4 groups of 4. In the opening match, AS Vita of the Democratic Republic of Congo hosted Simba SC from Tanzania.
These two sides have played each other twice before in the CAF CL, being drawn with other in the group stages in the 2018/19 competition. Vita won the first meeting 5-0 in Kinshasa, but an 89th minute goal in the return gave Simba a 2-1 win to qualify for the last 8 ahead of Vita. Egyptian side Al Ahly won that group, and the current holders of the CAF CL are also in their group this year. Only Sudan’s Al-Merrikh are different this time !
AS Vita are based in Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo and play on an artificial grass surface at the 125,000 capacity Stade des Martyrs. However, today’s match was behind closed doors.
From performances over a 5 year period, DR Congo’s league is ranked the 4th best in Africa which enables two sides to play in the CAF Champions League. AS Vita qualified as runners up in the 2019/20 Linafoot, the top level league in DR Congo, at the time it was abandoned due to the Covid pandemic. The champions were Lubambashi based TP Mazembe, who famously beat Brazilian side Internacional 2-0 in 2010 World Club Finals before losing to Inter Milan in the final.
Vita were Linafoot Champions in 2014/15 & 2017/18, and have won 14 titles in total. They have been the champions of Africa on one occasion, back in 1973 when Zaire ( as the country was known then ) were the strongest nation in Africa and qualified for 1974 World Cup. Eight 8 members of that World Cup squad were from Vita.
Vita currently lie in 3rd place in the 2020/21 Linafoot, one point behind Sanga Balende and level with TP Mazembe with an unbeaten 9-5-0 record. However, their last league match was as far back as January 3rd, and their last competitive game was in the CAF CL on January 6th against Young Buffaloes of Eswatini. A 4-1 home victory gave an aggregate score of 6-3 for qualification to the group stages.
Vita’s starting line-up contained three current DRC internationals ( Shabani, Lilepo & Mayele ), the two centre backs come from the Ivory Coast, keeper Medjo is a Cameroonian and midfielder Yacoub comes from Mauritania. The coach, Florent Ibenge, was previously the coach of the DR Congo national side, and has also coached top Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua.
Simba SC are located in Dar-es-Saalam, the capital of Tanzania and play at the 60,000 capacity National Stadium.
Founded in 1936, the club was renamed in 1971, with the name meaning Lions. They are one of the two giant clubs in Tanzania ( the other being Young Africans ) and have won 21 league titles.
As Tanzania’s Vodafone Premier League is ranked 13th best in Africa, only one side enters the CAF CL, and Simba were the 2019/20 champions, finishing 16 pts ahead of Young Africans.
Simba have progressed through two rounds to get to the group stages, recording a surprise to eliminate Plateau United from higher ranked Nigeria in the Preliminary round with a 1-0 win in the first leg played in Togo due to Nigeria’s Covid restrictions, before a 0-0 home draw ensured progress to the First Round. FC Platinum of Zimbabwe were next up, and after a 0-1 loss in Harare, a 4-0 home win saw Simba into the group stages.
Simba featured in the one Africa Champions Cup match I have seen live. Whilst on holiday in the Seychelles in 2001, they played local side Red Star in a first round match, which they won 1-0.
As an illustration of some of the issues in travelling across the continent, Simba had to fly via Ethiopia, spending a night in Addis Adaba en route to Kinshasa. Arriving two days before the day of the match, they at least had plenty of time to overcome any possible travel lag, and acclimatise to conditions in DR Congo.
Simba’s starting line-up contained three current Tanzanian internationals ( Manula , Kapombe & Husseini ), two Zambian internationals ( Chama & Bwalya ) plus internationals from Kenya ( Onyango ) and Mozambique ( Miquissone ). Striker Chris Mugalu returned to his homeland of DR Congo for the match. Midfielder Taddeo Lwanga is Ugandan and right-back Serge Pascal Wawa hails from the Ivory Coast. Striker Medie Kagere, 41 caps for Rwanda, was amongst the substitutes as was Kenyan international midfielder Francis Kahata. The coach, Didier Gomes da Rosa, is French, but has made a career managing clubs across Africa.
Kick-off was 8pm local time and the match was streamed live on Bet365.com. Vita started as strong favourites at 2/5 with Simba rank outsiders at 9/1. The draw was at 13/5.
Vita wore a kit of two different shades of green, whilst Simba were in white shirts with red patterns and Visit Tanzania sponsorship on the front. However, the TV graphic showed the colours the wrong way round for the whole game !
Vita dominated the early stages. Lilepo sent a free-kick high and wide from a dangerous position, and a low cross from the by-line from Kalenda ricocheted off two defenders forcing an athletic tip over the bar by Manula. In the 12th minute Manula was less convincing, charging out to near the corner flag to challenge Kalenda but failed to win the ball. Luckily for him the cross into the penalty area was again blasted high and wide with the keeper out of position.
Simba’s keeper was again at fault 10 minutes later, when his attempted punch at a corner went backwards and just over the bar, although the referee awarded a foul in favour of Simba.
Vita’s chunky right-back and 27 year old captain Djuma Shabani caught the eye. With the top of his hair a trendy dyed blonde and a surplus kilo or two, he was involved in most of the home side’s dangerous moves, and looked the best player on the pitch.
Simba slowly got a foothold into the match, and for the rest of the half Vita were only able to muster a couple of long range free-kicks straight at the keeper. Apart from their centre-backs, Simba looked physically smaller than their opponents but their lightweight forwards looked pacy going forward.
The visitors would have been the happiest side at half-time with the game still scoreless as Vita had much better of the first half, but Simba were looking more assured as the game wore on.
Simba started the second half brightly with two dangerous breaks, but failed to find the incisive passes. However, the game turned in the 58th minute when the Gambian referee awarded a penalty for handball after a shot from Miquissone hit the arm of Ouattara at close range after some tricky play down the right wing by Chama. It looked a little harsh, but Mugalu stepped up to send the Vita keeper the wrong way and give Simba the lead.
The goal appeared to give more confidence to Simba, and two minutes later a flowing one-touch passing move ended with a weak finish being comfortably saved.
In a match played in a very sporting spirit, the first yellow card only arrived in the 68th minute after a clumsy challenge by Lwanga. Two more cards were dished out before the final whistle, one for each side.
Vita rung the changes, and created their best chance of the game in the 69th minute when a through ball was put over the bar under pressure from 12 yards out. Manula got away with another poor punch two minutes later, again saved by the referee awarding a free-kick.
Shabani was again to the fore for Vita, beating two defenders on a surging run down the right but his chipped cross to the far post went just over the bar. He then burst in-between two defenders inside the area but was crowded out for a corner. In added on time his long cross from half-way was well gathered by Manula, in perhaps his safest piece of handling in the whole game.
The final piece of action occurred in the 92nd minute when Mumbere made space on the right wing to cross towards the penalty spot to be met by Mukokiani. Unfortunately for Vita his attempted scissor kick sailed harmlessly over the bar.
Simba safely saw out the last couple of minutes of added on time, and wildly celebrated their unexpected triumph in what was quite frankly, a drab game. However, they won’t care about that !
The result was perhaps a little unfair on Vita, as apart from the penalty, Simba had only one shot and rarely looked dangerous. On the other hand, whilst Vita created several chances poor finishing meant the Simba keeper did not have a difficult save to make.
AS Vita : Medjo – Shabani, Koua, Ouattara, Sita – Yacoub ( Moloko ), Tshishimbi ( Mumbere ), Obenza – Lilepo ( Tulengi ), Mayele ( Mukokiani ), Kalenda ( Soze )
Simba SC : Manula – Kapombe Wawa, Onyango, Husseini, , – Lwanga, Bwalya ( Kahata ), Chama ( Juma ), Yassin, Miquissone – Mugalu ( Kagere ),
Referee : Bakary Gassama ( Gambia )
YouTube Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0y20VNY6Sw
No comments:
Post a Comment