The Cup Winners Cup had a bit more incidences than the Champions Cup – two clubs withdrew without playing at all: Ader Club (Niger) and Dingareh (Gambia). Strangely, the club benefiting from Ader Club’s withdrawal did the same in the next round – Esperance (Tunisia) left the tournament without playing a single match. No luck for the Cameroonian represent: Dynamo (Douala) qualified directly to the second round, thanks to a bye, but there they faced Eleven Wise of Ghana. More or less, Ghana was one of the consistently strong African nations and Eleven Wise prevailed over the Cameroonians 2-1 and 1-1. Meantime, the Zairian representative, TP Mazembe, was going as well as their compatriots in the Champions Cup – the first loss and first difficulties they had in the ¼ finals. Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Nigeria, was traditionally strong opponent and perhaps even more so in the year of rising Nigerian football. TP Mazembe still won the penalty shoot-out, though. They had easy – on paper – opponent at the semi-finals: Kadiogo (Upper Volta, today – Burkina Faso). It should have been a walk in the park, but it was not – Mazembe won only 1-0 at home and extracted a 2-2 tie away. The other semi-final was tough: Africa Sports (Cote d’Ivoire) vs MA Hussain-Dey (Algeria), two of the better African clubs. Africa Sports won 1-0 at home and survived Algerian assault in the second leg, tying the match 2-2. Africa Sports and TP Mazembe contested the Cup Winners Cup. The winner was really decided in the first leg in Algeria – Mazembe won 3-1, making the second match a mere formality. They won it too, only the result was minimal – 1-0. TP Mazembe won their first Cup Winners Cup!
Africa Sports of Abidjan are one of the two strongest Cote d’Ivoirean clubs, but internationally they did not win anything for a long time. 1980 was perhaps their first real attempt to conquer Africa, but they failed. Reaching the final was great, though.
TP Mazembe won their first Cup Winners Cup, but it was just one trophy to them – back in 1960s they won the Champions Cup twice: 1966 and 1967. Back then they were named Englebert – named after their sponsor, a tire brand. The original name of the club was Saint Georges – since the club was founded by Benedictine monks. After the Ravens (as the club is nicknamed) won 3 consecutive titles, in the 1966 Tout Puissant (Almighty) was added to the official name. By 1980 the name was TP Mazembe – today more history is recognized, so the current name includes Englebert too. As for the team hailing from Lubumbashi… hard to tell.
TP Mazembe 1980 – is there a goalkeeper at all?
Or may be these are our boys? Nice and rare kit – the picture very likely is not from the final against Africa Sports, but it is worthy showing just for the design. The Ravens excelled not only by playing – their kits are great.