The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Imani Makongoro
1 December 2011
Dar es Salaam — Coach Abdul Fatah Abbas was left scratching his head in disbelief when Zanzibar Heroes’ hopes to make it into the quarterfinals of the 2011 Cecafa Tusker Challenge Cup went up in smoke yesterday.
The Heroes wound up their campaign in the regional tournament with a crushing 3-0 win over hapless Somalia at the National Stadium.However, the victory, which was all Abbas’ team needed to appease their disgruntled fans, was not enough to give them a ticket for the next stage of the tournament.”It’s always disappointing to suffer early elimination in international competitions,” the Egyptian tactician simply said shortly after the Group B game.
Zanzibar Heroes wound up their group stage campaign on four points from three games, three behind group leaders Burundi and two adrift of second-placed Uganda Cranes.Somalia, another team in the four-team pool, failed even to make their presence felt in the championship, losing all their group matches.
In yesterday’s match, it took Zanzibar Heroes six minutes to break the deadlock through Suleiman Kassim, who connected home a Khamis Mcha pass with a sizzling shot for a 1-0 half time lead.
On resumption, the Zanzibar team started where they had left off, commanding the proceedings with swift but accurate passes to the delight of their fans.
Amir Hamad doubled the lead in the 50th minute when he latched into a pass by Aggrey Morris just outside the box to unleash a shot that gave goalie Khalis Mursal no chance.Hamad fluffed two chances in the 67th and 79th minutes before Morris put things beyond the Somali team’s reach with a close range strike five minutes to time.
In yesterday’s other Group B match, Burundi put up a spirited fight to squeeze a 1-0 win over Uganda Cranes in an exciting match.The match started at a cracking pace with both teams pressing upfront in search of an early goal.
Uganda Cranes missed what could have been the match-opener in the 19th minute when striker Emmanuel Okwi fumbled with the ball in the box before it was cleared by Burundi defenders.
The lone goal came in the 38th minute when Amis Cedric capitalised on a defensive mix-up to beat goalie Robert Odongokara with a cheeky shot.In the last eight minutes of the second half, Uganda Cranes fought desperately for an equaliser but to no avail.
Line-ups:
Zanzibar Heroes: Mwadini Ali, Nadir Haroub, Juma Othman, Waziri Salum, Abdulrahman Gulum, Suleiman Kassim, Aggrey Morris, Abdul Humoud, Amir Hamad, Khamis Mcha and Abdallah Ali/Abdulrahman Mohamed.
Somalia: Khalid Mursal, Dek Abdullahi, Said Mohamud, Yusuph Mohamed, Kassim Mursal, Aden Hussein, Ahmed Abdulkadir, Sa’d Hussein, Ikar Amin, Mohamed Ibrahim and Mohamed Ali.
AllAfrica – All the Time