5 - 11 April 2001
Issue No.528
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 April 2001 Issue No.528 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Still in one piece
Egyptians finished third in an African youth football championship but not before fleeing the field twice because of angry spectators. Inas Mazhar reports
Angola is the new youth champion of Africa after denying Ghana a second successive title. Second-half goals by Antonio Viana Mendonca and Lourenco Tomas were enough to dethrone Ghana, who was the favourite to retain the under-20 title it won at home in 1999. Angolan players burst into tears after the whistle as the young Palancas Negras celebrated their country's first ever continental football trophy.
Egypt took third place after beating hosts Ethiopia 2-0. Belgium-based Ahmed Hossam opened the scoring for the Egyptians two minutes into the game. Mohamed Abdel-Wahed sealed the win two minutes from time. Egypt's third-place finish was good enough to give it the right to be one of four nations that will represent Africa at the FIFA World Youth Championship to be held in Argentina from 17 June to 7 July.
It was the second meeting between Egypt and Ethiopia in the 15-day competition. They drew 2-2 in their preliminary group match that saw Ethiopia come back from a 2-0 deficit. In that game, Egyptian defender Mohamed El-Ghobashi was banned for a year for spitting at female Nigerian referee Bola Abidoye. The incident happened after two penalties were awarded to the hosts. Abidoye, one of two female referees at the tournament, was approached by Egyptian players after giving the second penalty in the last minute of the game, and had to be rescued by security. But Ethiopian midfielder Ashenafi Girma missed the spot-kick which would have given his side victory after coming back from two goals down in a game halted for 25 minutes because of floodlight failure. Fans invaded the pitch and threw objects at the Egyptian bench. Police intervened to protect the Egyptians from being attacked in their dressing rooms.
It was the second match in which the Egyptians were chased off the field twice by angry Ethiopian fans. Against Cameroon, a pitch invasion by unruly Ethiopians forced the cancellation of the match in the 28th minute. Suspicious and angry Ethiopian fans believed the match was being fixed. They felt that Cameroon and Egypt were playing a tactical draw which would have ensured that both nations advanced to the semi-finals at Ethiopia's expense.
"We deserved to win the first game [against Ethiopia] but we all know what happened and neither I nor my team want to remember this tournament," Egyptian coach Shawqi Gharib said. "But this time we were determined to win by any means."
Egypt lost the semi-final to Ghana. The Black Satellites squeezed by 6-5 in a penalty shoot-out after the teams had drawn 1-1. A goalless 90 minutes was followed by a goal by Stephen Tetteh in the fifth minute of extra time, but Hamza Gamal swiftly pulled the score level two minutes later.
Gharib said he was pleased with his teams results and that it was a miracle to play the way it did "in such an atmosphere with the fans, referees and the CAF (African Football Federation) against the team. We were terrorised. We couldn't leave our hotel on days we didn't play. And until now, we don't really have an explanation." He added that he would have liked to win the semi-final against Ghana but was nevertheless satisfied. "I didn't care who reached the final because both of us are going to Argentina."
Best players:
Joao Mamona (Angola), Abul-Magd Mustafa (Egypt), Gabriel Mafokeng (South Africa), Hussein Amin (Egypt), Luc Mbeng (Cameroon), Sulley Muntari (Ghana), Derrick Boateng (Ghana), Wael Riad (Egypt), Stephen Oduro (Ghana), Pedro Mantorras (Angola), Mohamed El-Yamani (Egypt).
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page