AfricaPress-Tanzania: IT was a perfect drill for Simba who clobbered Sudan’s giants Al Hilal 4-1 in the Super Cup opener at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.
The best from Simba on Wednesday was attacking prowess against Al Hilal’s quality defending machinery with Ugandan import, Jamal Salim Magoola made the busiest player between the posts.
The match with Al Hilal brightly opened Simba’s endeavour to test and build quality squad that will face African giants; Al Ahly, AS Vita and Al Merreikh in the CAF Champions League.
The voluminous win over Al Hilal gave Simba’s coach Didier Gomes Da Rosa a warm welcome as he witnessed all four goals being expertly converted.
But the match brightest boy was Bernard Morrison who netted a brace while other goals were scored by a Zimbabwean flying winger Perfect Chikwende and Larry Bwalya who played brilliantly at the middle of terrain.
Bwalya who was awarded 500,000/- as a man of the match said he was delighted with his and fellow players’ performance. “I am happy to win as we all played well,” said Bwalya in postmatch interview.
The match started brightly with Simba using flanks to raid Al Hilal goal and it took them 38 minutes to score the opener. It was Larry Bwalya who opened the goal account after firing home from a close range, completing Perfect Chikwende move.
Al Hilal reacted strongly after conceding the goal and started their cautious moves towards Simba goal. Their efforts paid off six minutes later when Salim Mohamed headed home an equaliser past Beno Kakolanya.
The teams went for a breather tied 1-1. Both teams came rejuvenated in the second half but none of them managed to score until 25 minutes later.Speedy winger Perfect Chikwende scored the second goal for Simba in the 72nd minute a good combination.
The goals devastated Al Hilal who let Simba control the game at their will. But most importantly was arrival of Bernard Morrison whose presence changed the pace of the game. Morrison was the man of the dying minutes as he scored the two last goals of the match.
It was in the 86th minute when Morrison netted the third goal a good one-two with his fellow strikers. The Ghanaian import sealed the goal account three minutes later when scored the fourth goal in the 89th minute. Standing a few metres from the box, Morrison curled a volley that went at the far post past Magoola.
Simba Super Cup which includes Congo DR giants TP Mazembe is a tournament designed by Simba to drill players for CAF Champions League. Simba will test TP Mazembe in the second match of Super Cup at Benjamin Mkapa stadium this Sunday.
Simba’s Super Cup invitees; Al Hilal and TP Mazembe are also playing in CAF Champions League.
