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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Scratch Olympic football
By Abeer AnwarEgypt's dreams of landing a berth at the Sydney Olympics football competition must be put on hold for another four years. The country finished second in Group C behind qualifiers Morocco on the last weekend of the qualifying matches, losing out on one of four African places in the summer spectacular.
The sole consolation for Egypt was its 3-0 defeat of Tunisia away in Sousse, netting a first-minute penalty through Ibrahim Said and a second on 13 minutes from Ahmed Bilal. A third goal in the last minute from Walid Abdel-Latif sealed the victory.
Although the win somewhat avenged a 1-0 loss to Tunisia in the African Cup of Nations in January, it could not change a sad ending. "The team is responsible for this, having lost many chances to secure an early place after drawing with Morocco 1-1 and Cote d'Ivoire 3-3 in Abidjan," Dahshouri Harb, head of the Egyptian Football Federation, said. Coach Abdel-Aziz Abdel-Shafi was more conciliatory towards the team. "The players did their best and implemented game strategy but were unlucky," Abdel-Shafi said. "We have [at least] formed a strong team and talented players who could join the national team," he added.
Morocco had to come from a goal down against Cote d'Ivoire to secure the automatic qualifying place in Group C. It won 2-1 in Casablanca with goals from Abdel-Fatah Al-Khattari and Karim Benkouar.
Cameroon also qualified while South Africa, as the best runner-up, will play Oceania representative New Zealand over two legs in May to decide a further place at the 16-team Olympic under-23 tournament. South Africa finished with 13 points, one more than the Angolans and two more than Egypt, edging closer to a first appearance at the Olympic Games soccer tournament.
Egypt's win didn't count for much
Nigeria scored twice in injury time to stomp Zimbabwe 4-0 and dramatically secure a berth in Sydney later this year, progressing by just a single goal. Nigeria, the gold medalist at the 1996 Games, finished level on 12 points with Angola and Zimbabwe but took the sole qualification place on goal difference.
It was Ajax Amsterdam reserve striker Pius Ikedia who scored two minutes into stoppage time against Zimbabwe in Lagos to secure the 4-0 win and give Nigeria a one-goal advantage over Angola and a berth in the finals. Angola won 1-0 in Uganda with a 85th minute goal from Chinho and would have qualified ahead of the Olympic champions on goals scored had Ikedia not netted.
Zimbabwe, the group leader before the start of play, needed just a draw to qualify but trailed to two Emmanuel Ebiede goals in the first half. Yakubu Aiyegbeni scored the third and Ikedia added the vital fourth.
The result was another devastating blow for Zimbabwe, which has made a habit of losing out on qualification at the final hurdle and kept up their unenviable record of having never reached the finals of a major soccer tournament.
Angola's hopes of claiming the best runner-up spot were ended 24 hours later when South Africa won their Group B away match in Guinea 4-1.
Goals by captain Matthew Booth, Siyabonga Nomvete and Benni McCarthy gave the visiting South Africans a 3-1 half-time lead and midfielder Quinton Fortune completed the scoring with 17 minutes left. The winners finished second in the mini-league standings, two points behind Cameroon, which scored three late goals to humiliate 1992 silver medalist Ghana 3-0 in Accra.
