26 April - 2 May 2001
Issue No.531
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 April - 2 May 2001 Issue No.531 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Well done
Zamalek's football club found itself in an unusual, pleasant situation: celebrating a soccer league triumph, reports Alaa Shahine
Hossam Hassan and Mohamed Sabri scored the two goals Zamalek needed to beat Mehalla and win the football league crown for the first time in seven years and the ninth in its history, writes Alaa Shahine
Despite Mehalla's hard tackling, Zamalek's Hassan kept moving
photo: Abdel-Hamid Eid
The 2-1 victory left Zamalek on top of the standings with 59 points, eight points ahead of Ahli with two matches still to play.
At Cairo Stadium, an unusually large partisan crowd of 40,000 came to see Zamalek end its league drought that began in 1993. During most of that stretch, the club had finished runners-up to Ahli and had, in fact, dropped to third last year.
A lot of the heartache was forgotten, however, on Saturday night. Zamalek began the match with guns blazing, searching for an early goal. But Mehalla, the relegation-threatened guests, kept its composure and indeed mounted several dangerous counter-attacks.
Nerves started to fray on the Zamalek side as the game wore on and no goal was produced. But Hassan, ironically a former Ahli striker, gave his team the lead in the 62nd minute when he rose to meet Sabri's perfect cross and fired a header into the back of the net, bringing the home crowd to its feet.
The home side was then awarded a penalty kick for handling. Sabri scored and the party was on, the spirits dampened only by a Mahmoud Sobhi goal two minutes before the whistle.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Zamalek's vice president Mourtada Mansour sent a taunting message to Ahli. "I would like to tell its supporters that so long as we have this group of talented players, do not think about regaining the title for the next few seasons."
"Our victory could also be attributed to the fair officiating which was unbiased for the first time this season," Mansour said, in reference to Zamalek's many run-ins with referees this season.
The coaching staff were no less enthusiastic. "I am overwhelmed with joy and very proud of the boys," said Helmi Toulan, the team's assistant coach.
"We could have settled the matter a few days earlier, against Dina, but they couldn't handle the pressure," Toulan added, referring to Dina's 2-1 upset of Zamalek, the first loss for the team this season.
"But today they did it well and this will give us a big boost in our coming commitments," he said. Zamalek will play in July's World Cup for Clubs in Spain.
"Of course we cannot give any empty promises about what we can do in one of the world's football showpieces," Toulan told the Weekly. "It is a tough championship and a tough group and all we can promise is to do our best."
In other league games, Ahli edged Mansoura 1-0 and fourth-place Ismaili remained hot on the heels of Misri by storming past Ittihad of Alexandria 3-0 away, while Misri were held to a 1-1 draw at home against the Arab Contractors.
Tersana and Qanah won hard-fought 2-1 victories over Dina and Qanah respectively while Maaden thrashed Sohag Railways 3-0.
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