Turks delight
Egypt tied with Turkish giants Galatasaray in one of the more faster-paced games Cairo Stadium has seen in some time. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab covered the go-go game
Galatasaray came to play and that they did, drawing 1-1 with Egypt's national team in a game that showed how far Turkish football has come.
Unlike recent visits by Italian clubs Lazio and AS Roma, who seemingly came, first to take in the sights, then as an afterthought, play some football, the Turkish 2000 UEFA Cup champions quickly dispensed with the ubiquitous Pyramid sightseeing tour to get down to the business at hand.
Egypt played an excellent first half against the Turkish giants and scored in the 17th minute through Hazem Emam. Tarek El-Sayed dribbled into the area and sent a low pass to Emam, who powered one with his right into the back of the net, leaving Farid Mondragon with no chance.
Galatasaray, making the trip to Cairo as part of their training schedule during their league's winter break, launched a major comeback in the second half and succeeded in levelling in the 52nd minute. Fabio Pinto passed to Ali Lukunku in the area, who was totally unmarked. Lukunku sent a low shot with his left to the right of Essam El-Hadari.
Despite the pre-match hype, no more than 15,000 of Egypt's faithful turned up, plus a smattering of Turkish expats. They were to experience first-hand what evolved to be a classic match-up.
The game kicked off in horrible fashion for Egypt, with World Cup star Hasan Sas terrorising the defence. The Colombian striker Lukunku almost had El-Hadari in tears when he sent a bizarre unexpected seventh minute shot that simply overtook El-Hadari and smacked his left post.
Egypt got its act together though, and began displaying some impressive team soccer, with good all-round movements and evident tactics. El-Sayed, playing well on the right, managed to round Bulent Korkmaz before setting up an advancing Emam who controlled well, and clocked his shot past Mondragon into the back of the net on 17 minutes.
A few minutes later, El-Sayed was back with his right flank work, sending an inch perfect cross into the box, with Sayed Abdel-Hafiz wasting his header.
Egypt carried on its high-pitched play with an Emam-Abdel-Halim Ali one-two following soon, before another well-organised play that saw Mohamed Gouda firing a cracker that rammed the corner of the woodwork.
Egypt's performance was clearly agitating Galatasaray's "Emperor", Fatih Terim, who both coaches and runs the club's football affairs.
Ali and Korkmaz got ugly towards the end of the half, trading pushes before players on both sides pulled them apart.
Emam, playing exceptionally well on the day, was close to scoring soon after the re-start when an Ahmed Hassan cross-in was almost met by him but was instead cleared by a defender whose leg connected with Emam's face, forcing play to pause.
The visitors though looked keenly intent on equalising in the early minutes of the half, with numerous wasted chances, most notably an elegant Pinto chip that forced a brilliant finger-tip save from El-Hadari.
Egypt's defence was finally fully exposed, with Pinto sending a pass between Ayman Abdel-Aziz's legs and straight to Lukunku, whose first time left-footed strike left El-Hadari stranded on his line, only able to watch the ball crash into his own net on 52 minutes.
The visitors piled on the pressure, with the game turning into an attack-counter-attack scenario. Ali could have changed the final scoreline when mid-way through the half, a long Hassan ball found him one-on-one with Mondragon, but Ali's tight angled shot bounced off the Colombian keeper's right post and out of play.
Soon afterwards, Berkant Goktan, with his first shot of the game after coming on for Ergun, lashed out a surprising shot that almost caught El-Hadari unaware but the keeper's reflexes saved a second Turkish goal.
Egypt's poor finishing was clear on the day. With both Ahmed Belal and Mido out of the roster, the pressure was on Ali to deliver, and despite his massive efforts, the goods never came. His teammates weren't that better off, as Abdel-Hafiz wasted blatantly yet again on 78 minutes, when Emam managed to enter and sent a square ball that Abdel-Hafiz failed to connect with.
Both teams traded possession in the final few minutes of the game with the two looking content with the hard-fought draw.
The game, while a friendly, had an official theme to it in the fact that both teams did not exceed three substitutions each, with Mohsen Saleh fielding Ismaili duo Khamis Gaafar and Islam El-Shater in place of Abdel-Aziz and Gouda.
Saleh's tactics lasted for the first half, with the Pharaoh's displaying intelligent movement and tactical awareness. Things turned around in the second half as the Turks, aided by superior fitness, took the reigns. Saleh's second half instructions seemed to revolve around counter breaks, with his offence's lack of finishing letting his plans down. All in all, both sides scored points on determination and game play.
The game was part of a series of warm-ups Egypt is playing in to prepare for its crucial African Nations Cup qualifying match in Mauritius in March. The trial games have included games against Tunisia, Nigeria, the UAE and Ghana. But there was no doubt that Galatasaray, though just a club, proved the biggest challenge to Egypt, coming as it does after Turkey finished a surprising third in last summer's World Cup.
