CAF Chamions League 2009

[Merengue]

We have not discussed this year's tournament but this weekend was the semifinal first leg games and with 2 big winners, the likely finalists look set. Nigeria's Heartland FC beat their compatriots of Kano Pillars 4-0 while DR Congo's TP Mazembe, the only former champions, and that was 40 years ago, of the semifinalists, beat Sudan's Al Hilal 5-2 in Khartoum, Sudan!

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns

Surprisingly this year no clubs from Egypt or Tunisia made the semifinals and now barring any miraculous comebacks it looks like it will be Heartland-TP mazembe in the final.

[SuperEagle]

The all Nigerian semifinal has attracted alot of attention as could be expected in Nigeria. But I don't think many except the core supporters of Heartland expected them to win game 1 so easily. Kano Pillars did eliminate perennial tournament champion Al Ahly in an earlier round but their domestic season was a bit disappointing and they've come into these semifinals on aless than high note. I thought Heartland ended up taking it a little easy in the end but a 4 goal led against a team going home for leg 2 is a comfortable lead.

[Nkono]

I read where Kano Pillars have suspended their Slovenian coach Ivo Sajh because he publicly criticized the club's officials as he said for the first time in his career he abandoned his coaching methods and listened to what the directors wanted and thus in the firsy half against heartland, Kano Pillars played with 4 defenders instead of the 3 that they traditionally have used. The change Sajh contends helped create confusion among the defense and thus Heartland raced out to a 4 goal first half. At half time he went back to his traditional formation but by then it was too late.

[SuperEagle]

Nigerian club officials interfering with a coach? No surprise there! It is too bad this great tournament run by Kano Pillars, they eliminated perennial champions Al Ahly of Egypt even before the group stage, has ended like this. But hopefully the club will benefit from the financial windfall of participating in the Champions League.

Heartland won game 2 1-0 to triumph 5-0 overall and advance to the final, the club's 2nd ever appearance there, they lost in 1988 to Entente Setif of Algeria when they were known as Iwuanyanwu Nationale.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/89/africa/2009...qualify-for-caf

Yesterday's game winning goal scored in the 89th minute by uche Agba.

[Nkono]

So it will be TP Mazembe vs Heartland FC for the championship. Definitely a new look to this seaosn's Champions League which I think is good for the continent's football.

[SuperEagle]

Here is a preview of this weekend's first leg of the Champions League Final which will be played in Owerri, Nigeria between Heartland and TP Mazembe:

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=goal...=goal&type=lgns

The clubs met in the group stages and split 2-0 wins so that should indicate we'll have an evenly matched final. According to this article there is still some doubt on whether heartland's winger/forward John Owoeri is eligible for the first leg. I am not sure why as he served his 2 match suspension in the semifinals. Owoeri was a member of Nigeria's 2005 U-20 team which was runnerup in that age group World Cup to Lionel messi's Argentina. Also look out for centerback and Heartland's captain, the wonderuflly named ThankGod Ike!

[Nkono]

ThankGod Ike is an even better name than Cameroon's U20 centerback Banana Yaya!

You can not always use previous matchups as a guide but the fact they each won by identical scores does sound good for a competitive final. What is interesting is after years of North African clubs dominating this competition last year one of the finalists, Cameroon's Cotonsport and this season both finalists are from sub saharan Africa. A potential sign of a shift in the balance of power at club level?

[Nkono]

A 2-1 first leg victory at home for Heartland this weekend. Goals by tournament top scorer Tresor Mputu for TP Mazembe and 2 by Uche Agba of Heartland, the final one coming late in the match. I would say this is a good scoreline for TP to take home to DR Congo next week.

[SuperEagle]

Bad weather effected this game but Heartland left it late to get their winning goal by Agba. Actually the first goalscorer was changed and it was credited to King Osanga, who played for Nigeria at the recent U20 World Cup and not to Agba This is a good result for TP Mazembe but if Heartland gets a goal they'll put TP Mazembe under a lot of pressure in game 2 in Lubumbashi.

For those interested here are the Wikipedia pages for both finalists:

TP Mazembe

Heartland FC

[Yogi]

TP Mazembe are the African Champions they won today 1-0 over Heartland to win the championship on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate tie.

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=goal...=goal&type=lgns

The greatly named Ikechukwu ThankGod of Heartland was the player who scored the game's only goal knocking in a ball into his own team's net for an own goal. From the linked article it sounds like otherwise he did a good job but it was TP Mazembe controlling play with Heartland sitting back looking for sporadic counters. Congratulations to TP Mazembe who last won the championship 41 years ago!

[SuperEagle]

I was disappointed with the final and expected more from Heartland, they just sat back and absorbed pressure from TP Mazembe, Austin Brown the Heartland goalie was excellent until he had to leave injured and his young backup Ike Ezenwa also did well and could not do anything about the own goal. By the way Yogi it was not ThankGod Ikechukwu who scored the own goal but fellow defender Victor Ezuruike. Bit of advice, the article you linked came from goal.com a website which very rarely gets facts right! ThankGod Ikechukwu played a great game for Heartland and took TP Mazembe's star Tresor Mputu out of the game but the Congolese team desrved the championship as they really assaulted Heartland's goal, the Nigerian club did well I thought to only hold them to a single goal.

[Yogi]

Thanks for the correction Supereagle and you are correct goal.com is not the most reliable site, mostly they simply reproduce newspaper articles and translate them into English but when they try and write articles on their own they make the mistakes we've commented on.

Anyhow I like the idea that a club from a country like DR Congo will be competing n the World Club Cup as the African champions. Here is a country which since it was called Zaire in the 1974 World Cup has been out of the inetrnational spotlight other than some sporadic appearances in the African Nations Cup, so it is refreshing that a club from there will now get the opportunity to play for the World Club Cup. Other than the Oceania champion, TP Mazembe will surely be the club with the fewest financial resources in the competition but let us see if they can make up for that with teamwork

[Nkono]

That is a good point Yogi, TP Mazembe's trip to the World Club Cup will be DR Congo's moment in the sun. The Champions League final from everything I heard was intensely covered in DR Congo so much so that TP Mazembe actually had to leave to get away from the media spotlight. So you can imagine what the World Club Cup will mean to the club and its fans abck home.

As for the 2nd leg of the Champions League final, it was all TP Mazembe, Heartland were fortunate to only lose by a goal.