By Anil John/Doha

To a casual visitor to the Al Ahli Sports Club on Saturday night, the Shiekh Jassim Cup match between El Jaish and Al Shamal would have seemed like a friendly neighbourhood kickabout: plenty of spills rather than thrills, multiple substitutions and an air of informality all betraying the fact that it was Qatar’s season-opening football tournament.

But the first day of a new season is usually like that –the fact that we are in the midst of Ramadan also contributing to the lack of a thoroughly competitive atmosphere with club officials and team staff outnumbering serious spectators.

Nevertheless, it was a good opportunity for the teams to fire their opening salvos and figure out for themselves where they stand, especially in terms of physical fitness and team balance after the off-season during which news players are signed, transferred, or as is the case in Qatar, simply exchanged.

El Jaish, it must be said, came out tops in all departments of the game. Despite fielding only four players from their main team – including Brazilian Adriano who appeared as a substitute in the second half – they emerged comfortable 4-0 winners.

All the goals came in the second half as Al Shamal somewhat got their defensive act together later and prevented further damage to their confidence. New signing Mohamed Muntari was on target twice, with Wagner Rebeiro and Qatar international Maher Yusuf completing the formalities as the Al Shamal goalkeeper Haitham al-Ashiri found himself facing the music.

Muntari opened proceedings with an easy goal from close in the seventh minute after the Al Shamal defence failed to cope with Maher and Wagner toying with them and carving out easy openings.

Incidentally, Wagner, Maher and goalkeeper Ahmed Sufiyan were the only regular team players who saw action for El Jaish, with Adriano coming in later in the second half. All other players were members of the El Jaish “B” team.

For Shamal, who have been out of the top flight Qatar Stars League, it was a chance to rub shoulders with some of the stars of domestic football and derive some positives before the competition gains momentum.

That said, Shamal only started training two days ago, which speaks about a lack of intensity intent. It also showed on the ground as they were also found wanting in overall fitness, especially stamina. El Jaish, on the other hand, were more aggressive in their approach with Wagner really showing the kind of intent one would expect of him in any situation.

And sure enough the Brazilian was in the thick of things, blasting a 17th minute goal to help El Jaish consolidate. It is another matter though that in the intervening 10 minutes between the first and second goals, they wasted several chances to score, Wagner himself shooting straight to goalkeeper al-Ashari and Sayed al-Doukali hitting the post. Wagner also played a role in the team’s third goal, a clinical pass helping Muntari put his name on the score sheet for the second time in the 27th minute. Maher put the issue beyond doubt with a casual 40th minute strike.

In other matches, Al Gharafa found little trouble in crushing second division side Al Markhiya 3-0 at Al Khor Sadium, while Al Shahaniya upset Qatar Sports Club 2-1.