TP Mazembe made History
TP Mazembe became the first African team to reach the Club World Cup final, beating Copa Libertadores champion Internacional(Brasil) 2-0 Tuesday.
Mazembe striker Mulota Kabangu(on image on right) scored the first goal in the 53rd minute, taking a pass in the area before turning and shooting past
flat-footed goalkeeper Renan. Dioko Kaluyituka later slotted a shot past the diving Renan in the 85th.
Internacional had chances in the first half but was denied by Mazembe's stubborn defense and the stellar goalkeeping of Muteba Kidiaba, who swatted away several shots. Even the manager of International at end of game admitted that he was not ashame to lose with an African team because the African football has been improving year after years. He believe that the best team won at end of the game. This the second time that TP Mazembe went to represent Africa in Club World Cup last year they were eliminated in first around but this year they made african proude and showing what they can do. On Saturday in Abu Dhubi TP Mazembe lost with Inter Milan 3-0,to denied the African champion to become the first team win the Club world Cup. But Mazembe should not be desapointed because they already made history to become the first team reached the final outside of Europe and South America since this competetion started. In Lubombanshi the TP Mazembe fans were very desapointed with some referee's decisions. The fans though that the referee was a chinese at end of game they become to attack and looting chinese shops in Lubombashi but the referee was a Japanese. TP Mazembe made DRC and Africa proude about what they managed to achieved and we wish them go luck next time. |
TP Mazembe's story
Tout Puissant Mazembe - the TP part of their name translating as, rather immodestly, All Powerful - are one of the oldest and most successful club sides in African history. Based in Congo's second city, Lubumbashi, a copper-mining settlement near the border with Zambia, they were formed back in the 1930s by an order of Benedictine monks at the Holy Institute Boniface of Élisabethville, to keep those of their students who didn't want to take up the cloth fit and healthy.
In those early days they went under the name of the Holy Georges, and they soon joined the Royal Federation of the Native Athletic Associations
league, where they came third in their first season. They continued on as the Georges until they changes saints and became Holy Paul FC in 1944.
A few years later they cut all link with their church-based founders and became the rather quaint sounding FC Englebert, named after their new
sponsor, a local tyre brand.
But it wasn't until the sixties that their star began to really shine. In 1966 they won a rare local treble - the National Championship,
Katanga Cup and Congo Cup - while it reached the final of the African Cup of Champions between 1967 and 1970, winning the first two years,
and becoming the only team to have ever defended the title, until Enyimba International of Nigeria finally equalled their record in 2003
and 2004.
They won the Cup of Champions again in 2009, going on to play in the FIFA Club World Cup, where despite starting well, they finished sixth. In total they've won the Congolese national league ten times, the Congo Cup five times, and have qualified for the Cup of Champions, and its successor the CAF Champions League on an admirable 13 occasions.
After their initial spell of success in the sixties and seventies, they spent getting on for two decades in the wilderness, when the
Governor of the Katanga Province, Moise Katumbi Chapwe, took over as club president, changed the name and started pumping money into the
team. Indeed, he's recently announced that he's looking to punp ten million dollars into the team next season, and plans to build a new
stadium to replace their 35,000 capacity Stade Frederic Kibassa Maliba soon - the first to be solely owned by a Congolese club.