21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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Teen teams on view
The under-20 world football championship could be the launch pad for tomorrow's stars, writes Alaa Shahine
Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten, Bebeto, Luis Figo. All football superstars who used the world under-20 championship as a springboard to launch their careers. Last Sunday, the 13th such tournament got under way in Argentina and dozens of would-be Maradonas will be watched by club scouts and player agents drawn to an event that gives the world its first glimpse of some of the possible stars of the future.
Argentina, which first won with Maradona in Japan in 1979, is favoured as host to snatch its fourth title in the biennial tournament that has been expanded from 16 to 24 teams following a trend set by the World Cup in the 1980's.
Egypt, Ethiopia, Angola and Ghana are representing Africa in the 17 June to 8 July tournament. Egypt and Ghana each reached the final game, in 1981 and 1993 respectively.
But the Egyptian debut on Sunday was less than impressive, playing to a frustrating scoreless tie against Jamaica in a group that also features host nation Argentina and Finland. Despite being favoured to beat the lowly Caribbean side which has almost no football history to speak of, and having the upper hand in almost one- way traffic, Egypt just could not put Jamaica away.
The Egyptian assault started early enough with two close-range attempts by Gamal Hamza and Mohamed El-Yamani, who plays for Belgian side Standard Liege.
The first real scoring opportunity came in the 15th minute when Ahmed Abu Musalam curled a perfect cross to El-Yamani who stood alone in front of goal. But his shot went wayward. One minute later, Hamza danced past a defender and seemed certain to score only for Jamaica's keeper Allien Whittaker to stand in his way.
Egypt continued to run the show. Skipper Reda Shehata made a probing right-side run, warded off a defensive challenge for another one-on-one confrontation with the keeper but his effort was cleared by the defence off the goal line.
In the second half the Egyptians were denied still more as Hamza's free kick crossed the line but referee Aros Alvarado Guido of Chile thought otherwise. Guido later did call for a penalty after Abu Musalam was brought down but Hamza's shot sailed wide.
The rest of the half featured wasted opportunities by the Egyptians who, as the game wore on, appeared to firmly believe it was not their day. The belief was only confirmed in the 85th minute when El-Yamani took possession of a loose ball which had deflected off Whittaker only to amazingly send it back into the goalkeeper's hands. Fate again refused to smile at Egypt when striker Mohamed Mohsen Abu Greisha scored off yet another deflection but was ruled offside. The Egyptians were lucky not to concede a goal in the 88th minute following a dangerous Jamaican counterattack.
The result left Egypt and Jamaica in second and third places each on one point, while Argentina outclassed Finland 2-0 in the inaugural encounter to lead the group on three points. Argentina struck in the 37th minute through a free kick by Maximiliano Rodriguez before D'Alessandro sealed the hosts' victory in the 57th minute.
Iraq, the other Arab entry, had better luck than Egypt, thrashing Canada 3-0 in Group B. Iraq wrapped the victory up in the first half with Emad Riad scoring the go-ahead goal after 21 minutes. Salaheddin Taher and Ammar Hanoosh added two more in a 10-minute span before the interval.
The other Group B game was also settled before half-time as Brazil, like Argentina a three- time winner of the cup, blanked Germany 2-0. Robert opened the scoring from a corner in the ninth minute and then capitalised on a defensive mistake to add a second in the 22nd. Germany never looked capable of staging a comeback and the game petered out in the second half on a cold wintry afternoon.
In Group C, Ukraine got the better of South American side Chile 4-2 in the tournament's biggest upset so far. The victory came courtesy of goals by Gerasimenko, Ruslan Aleev and Oleki Byelik who netted twice. Rodrigo Millar and Sebastian Pardo scored for the Chileans who were overshadowed by the Europeans.
The group's other match saw China edge the United States 1-0 though striker Qu Bo in the 50th minute.
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