Issue No. 603
Sports
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12 - 18 September 2002 Issue No. 603 Sports |
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Surprise island
Africa's World Cup teams survived awkward away assignments at the start of qualifications for the African Nations Cup. Egypt, though, was not as lucky, writes Nashwa Abdel-Tawab
Former champion Egypt slumped to a surprise defeat as the qualifiers for the 2004 African Nations Cup started. Egypt lost 1-0 on the vast Indian Ocean island of Madagascar to a country ranked 21 places below it in Africa by world soccer governing body FIFA. Ruphin Menakely scored the 63rd-minute winner.
Despite dominating the game, Egypt was beaten after being caught flat-footed through a swift counter-attack. After coping with incessant Egyptian pressure, Madagascar broke through when Menakely latched on to a long pass. His pace took him past the Egyptian defence, rounding goalkeeper Essam El-Hadari with delightful skill. It was a cruel end for Egypt, after missing several chances of their own.
Wael Gomaa wasted a close-range header after 15 minutes and Madagascar's goalkeeper stretched to full length to save Ahmed Belal's shot in the 36th. Just before half time, Egypt appeared to have scored the opening goal but Belal's strike was ruled out by one of the linesman who had spotted an infringement.
The disallowed goal provoked fury in the Egyptian camp. "The referee ruled out a perfectly good goal for us, but this is the way African football is," said Hani Abu Reida of the Egyptian FA. "It is a shocking result. We dominated the whole game and missed a lot of chances. Madagascar scored from the only chance they got.
"I'm really disappointed but I hope the result does not affect Egypt's new coach and his new selection of players," Reida said.
Despite Madagascar's lowly reputation in African football, the new Egyptian coach, Mohsen Saleh, will not be taking his opponents for granted in the second leg. "Madagascar is not a weak opponent. Their players are fast and they have some talented players, too," Saleh said.
The loss to Madagascar followed an intense month of preparation in which the Pharaohs had victories over Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan before losing to Libya. Saleh said he will build a new Egyptian team around young talent.
New coach Hein Heinger boasted several weeks ago that Madagascar would defeat Egypt whose coach was also making his competitive debut. Neutral observers dismissed the claim as misplaced patriotism only for veteran African campaigner Menakely to sink Egypt, winner of the first two editions in 1957 and 1959 and later in 1986 and 1998.
A key absentee from the Egyptian squad was Ajax striker Ahmed "Mido" Hossam, who is injured. Ahmed Salah, who plays for Ghent in Belgium, was drafted in as a last-minute replacement.
Egypt's qualifying group has been reduced to three teams, including Mauritius, after the withdrawal of Guinea Bissau.
Ghana, which shares with Egypt the record of four Nations Cup triumphs, fell by the same score in Uganda, a country that last played in the biennial finals 24 years ago. Philip Obwiny was the 53rd-minute matchwinner.
Yugoslav Milan Zivadinovic was taking charge of Ghana for the first time in a competitive environment and was forced to eat his words after Obwiny struck at Nakivubo Stadium. "Ghana have better quality players than Uganda and we will win," bragged the Yugoslav before the match after assembling a squad boosted by 14 Europe-based professionals.
Kenya was the most decisive victor, putting three goals past Togo in Nairobi without reply. John Barasa, Musa Otieno and Denis Oliech were the marksmen.
An early own goal by Colin Benjamin enabled Algeria to edge Namibia 1-0 in Windhoek, and a strike midway through the first half by Youssef Chippo gave Morocco a 1-0 triumph over Gabon in Libreville.
There were no goals in a drab tussle between Botswana and Swaziland in Gaborone, with the home team finishing a man short after midfielder Masego Nshangani was sent off for a second- half foul. In another meeting of minnows, the Cape Verde Islands overcame Mauritania 2-0 in Nouakchott through goals from Clavio Zenilo on the stroke of half-time and Antonio Duarte 15 minutes into the second half.
There was a goalless draw in Congo, where Burkina Faso was the visitor, and perennial underachiever Zimbabwe used home advantage to edge Mali 1-0 via a Lazarus Muhoni goal.
Seychelles, ranked second to last in Africa by FIFA, celebrated a rare victory, pipping Eritrea thanks to a 50th-minute goal from Roddy Victor.
As for the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, they survived awkward away assignments. A first-half goal from Henri Camara earned Senegal a 1-0 win in Lesotho, Nigeria had the better of a 0-0 draw in Angola and South Africa withstood relentless pressure to force a 0-0 stalemate in Ivory Coast.
Senegal went furthest of the five African nations at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea last June, defeating defending champion France and Sweden and holding Denmark and Uruguay before bowing to Turkey in the quarter-finals. A hero of that run, peroxide blond striker El-Hadji Diouf, was a notable absentee when the Teranga Lions arrived in the tiny Southern Africa mountain kingdom of Lesotho. While many Senegalese supporters were furious that Diouf did not travel, the recent Liverpool recruit said he had gone home to Dakar to be with his seriously ill father and would be available for future fixtures.
Senegal could have done with the predatory powers of their best known soccer player as it carved open the Lesotho defence at will in Maseru only to be let down by timid finishing. Camara and Kalidou Fadiga were the biggest culprits before atoning for a series of misses by combining to score the lone goal 10 minutes before half-time. Fadiga stormed down the right touchline and his cross caught a back-pedaling Lesotho defence out of position, leaving Camara to strike from 20 metres.
Lesotho spent most of the second half defending in depth, seemingly content to lose narrowly and it did not reverse its safety-first policy even after the late expulsion of Fadiga for disputing a caution with the referee.
Angola and severely depleted Nigeria served up poor fare in Luanda with few fluid passing movements or goalmouth incidents on a hard, uneven Citadela Stadium surface. Although missing Augustine "Jay Jay" Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Joseph Yobo and Christopher Justice, the "Super Eagles" generally looked more threatening and captain Julius Aghahowa had the ball in the net only to be ruled offside.
Zimbabwe, the strongest team never to qualify for the Nations Cup, could not afford to drop any points at home to 2002 semi-finalists Mali and 30 minutes into the first half, Muhoni pounced on a loose ball to score.
Seychelles was playing for the first time under Dominique Bathenay, a member of the French squad at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, who has been given a six-month contract by the Indian Ocean islanders.
Host Tunisia, holder Cameroon, the 13 group winners and the best runners-up in the four-team pools qualify for the biennial finals of the African soccer showpiece.
Only four of the 52 African Football Confederation member states are not involved. War- torn Somalia did not enter and cash-strapped Djibouti, Guinea Bissau and Sao Tome e Principe withdrew after the draw was made.
For the first time preliminary matches have been done away with and the minnows will go straight up against the giants for a place in the finals in Tunisia in 2004. That meant more matches and a better chance for the lesser-known countries to make their mark on the continental competition. Also for the first time the draw for the competition was not conducted with geographical consideration as the top priority. Instead CAF seeded all the countries in different categories and then drew out the pairings. It meant several potentially exciting combinations.
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