Friendly problems
Despite a clash of egos in Zamalek and a cash crisis in Italian squad Lazio, the clubs put on a show in their exhibition in Cairo. Abeer Anwar reports
Zamalek continued their great run of form with a 2-1 win over Italian Serie A side Lazio in a friendly on Friday. Goals by Tarek El-Sayed and Gamal Hamza gave the African champions the victory.
El-Sayed scored first, giving Zamalek a half-time lead. Hamza got the second in the 56th minute, with Pablo Sorin pulling one back for Lazio late in the game.
"It was a great match. The victory means so much to the team and the fans of Zamalek," said Kamal Darwish, Zamalek's president. "It is not only the result, but the fact that such a team like Lazio was playing in Cairo."
Lazio, whose line-up included international stars Jaap Stam, Claudio Lopez, Diego Simeone, Dejan Stankovic and Fernando Couto, are currently pulling off a miraculous season, which now sees them just one point adrift of the Serie A table lead, lingering below both Milan giants AC and Inter. This comes after the club was on the verge of bankruptcy just months earlier and after Sergio Cragnotti officially resigned as president on Friday at a meeting of the club's directors.
A consortium of banks demanded Cragnotti's resignation as a condition of going ahead with plans to salvage Lazio and its parent company, the food group Cirio.
The board is expected to appoint team lawyer Ugo Longo as temporary president. Luca Baraldi, the general director of the Parma club, is expected to become chief executive officer. And coach Roberto Mancini is expected to be given a seat on the board.
"I'm very sorry to see him go as he was very important to me," Mancini said. "I am also sad for the players. It is upsetting to see it end this way because Cragnotti has given everything for this club. We shared many wonderful moments together. He was a super president. But he has made this decision for the good of Lazio. It's a great show of affection for this club."
Cragnotti took over at Lazio 11 years ago and guided the club through an extremely successful period before serious financial difficulties undermined his position. During Cragnotti's tenure as president, Lazio won two Italian Cups, two European Cup Winners Cups and the Italian title in 2000.
His presidency was characterised by the signing of expensive stars such as Alessandro Nesta, Pavel Nedved and Hernan Crespo, then being forced to sell them off.
Cragnotti's financial problems became apparent last summer when Lazio had to transfer two of its top players, defender Nesta to AC Milan and Argentine striker Crespo to Inter Milan.
The team's current players have all suffered lengthy delays in getting their salaries because of the club's money problems. The club was formally put up for sale in November as part of the reorganisation of Cirio which defaulted in repaying a £97 million loan.
Mancini seemed not to take Zamalek seriously, benching nine of his starters. Before the match, he was confident to a fault. "We're well prepared and we know all we need to know about Zamalek," he had said. "We've got a lot of work to do to improve our position in the league back home, so we might as well start here. We're here to win."
Mancini had to do without the services of two of his most influential players; Argentine midfielder Simeone and Yugoslav powerhouse Sinsia Mihalovic. Simeone was involved in a bizarre accident where apparently a fire cracker exploded in his face on New Year's eve. He was not seriously injured but club medics preferred that he stay behind.
Hazem Emam led his Zamalek teammates during the first half with exquisite dribbling skills and deft passes. He proved a handful for Stankovic and Oddo, both of whom received yellow cards for taking him down hard. Emam would eventually have to leave the game after banging his head into Manfredini's.
Zamalek's attacking posture brought the first goal when El-Sayed let fly from 25 yards with a grounder that eluded Peruzzi. Gamal Hamza could have made it a brace had his angled shot not hit the post.
Going into the second half, Mancini changed tactics and almost his entire team in search of the equaliser. Lazio were unlucky to have two shots cleared off the Zamalek goalline by defenders. Simeone saw his shot blocked by Beshir El- Tabei and Tamer Abdel-Hamid headed away a sure goal from Couto. Dino Baggio also had a superb shot saved by goalkeeper Abdel-Monsef. Luck would continue to elude Lazio when a rebound from a wicked drive by Abdel-Halim Ali went straight to Hamza, who had no problems slotting home.
Substitute Zamalek goalie Zenga -- nicknamed after Italian great Walter -- later denied Sorin a superb header. It was left up to the Argentine winger to score the consolation goal for Lazio from a loose ball in the six yard area following a corner kick in the 83rd minute.
The victory brought back memories of past Zamalek glory against foreigners. Over the years, the club has specialised in beating famed European names. They manhandled Bobby Moore and Geoffrey Hurst of West Ham United 5-1 shortly after the 1966 World Cup. In the late 1970s, Zamalek beat yet another English team, Derby County, then fresh winners of the Premiership, 1-0.
Lazio join Real Madrid as another big European side to visit the Egyptian capital -- and lose. AS Roma went down 2-1 to Ahli last summer while Real were beaten by Ahli 1-0 last year. The Egyptian side are also due to meet Ajax Amsterdam, home of Egyptian striker Ahmed Hossam, later this month in another high-profile friendly.
Zamalek head Darwish said more big-name clubs, including Barcelona and Liverpool, were being touted as next Zamalek opponents.
Following the game, Lazio flew to Libya on the second and last leg of their North African tour where they beat Al-Ittihad of Tripoli 2-1.
Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, owns Al-Ittihad and a 7.5 per cent stake in Juventus. He was also linked with taking over Lazio.
Like Lazio, Zamalek is in the midst of a crisis of their own following the resignations over the weekend of assistant coaches Mahmoud Saad and Tarek Yehia.
Their resignations came in defiance of a warning by Brazilian coach Carlos Roberto Capral that the club was not big enough for himself and some of his players. He mentioned four in particular: Mohamed Abul-Ela for a penalty he gave up against Enpi a week earlier in a league match, and Medhat Abdel-Hadi and twins Hossam and Ibrahim Hassan for dissent against the referee in the same match. Capral also added Mohamed Kamouna and El-Sayed on his black list, saying they were out of form.
So incensed were the first four that they made their feelings be known to Capral via a shouting match. The coach then duly sent them off the pitch during a training session.
Management quickly tried to tide things over, bringing former Zamalek coach Ahmed Rifaat as director of football operations. It also bowed to a long-time request by Capral to import another Brazilian coach for physical training.
But Zamalek are not out of the woods yet. Another problem involves the African Super Cup following a dispute with the club over TV rights.
Zamalek were reportedly taken to task by the African Football Federation, CAF, for allowing more than one TV satellite station to broadcast last month's African Champions League final against Raja of Casablanca. As punishment, the CAF switched the cup's organisational matters from Zamalek's hands to that of the Egyptian federation.
The Super Cup is a one-match final that pits the winners of the Champions League and Cup Winners Cup. Zamalek are to play Wedad of Morocco in Cairo next month.
Interviewed on TV, Zamalek vice president Mortada Mansour said the club may boycott the Super Cup if the CAF fails to give Zamalek the match.
"It's not the first time Zamalek hosts such an event," Mansour said.
