Separate ways
Egypt's national and Olympic football teams continue to move in opposite directions. Inas Mazhar reports on where each side is heading
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Ahmed Hassan raises his hands in exasperation after referee Abdel-Fatah, second from left, showed El-Sayed the red card
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Egypt was thoroughly outclassed against Denmark, going down 4-1 in Cairo Stadium.
Wednesday's match was a friendly in preparation for African Nations Cup qualifications against Madagascar and Mauritius. But "friendly" was a misnomer, citing stone throwers in the crowd of 50,000 who pelted not the guests but the Egyptians for the sub-par performance.
Coach Mohsen Saleh, who led Ismaili to the league championship last season, conceded that the team was out of synch, especially in defence. He attributed the problem to a rash of injuries to his starters that forced him to call up substitutes.
Saleh refused to take all the blame, however. Although he did not mention names, he was obviously referring to Egyptian referee Essam Abdel-Fatah who showed the red card to defender Tarek El-Sayed 29 minutes into the match for tackling a Danish striker just outside the box.
Abdel-Fatah, who was strongly criticised in the local press for his officiating, told reporters that his decision was correct and said in reply to those who said that there was no need for such decisions in a friendly that the rules do not differentiate between a friendly and an official game. He added that he was pleased with himself and was not to be blamed for the result, the performance of the Egyptian team or the mistakes of the head coach. "I will not be the team's scapegoat," Abdel-Fatah said.
The behaviour of some of the spectators was reminiscent of similar stone-throwing episodes which, on one memorable occasion, forced a World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe, that had been won by Egypt, to be replayed. Egypt lost the game and the chance to play in the showpiece event in 1994.
In addition, the scenes of stones and plastic bottles dropping atop the field and some heads will not help Egypt's cause as it seeks to host the 2010 World Cup.
The game was the 10th for Saleh since he took over earlier last year. The Pharaohs beat Ethiopia 2-1, Uganda 4-1, Sudan 3-0 and the UAE 2-1. They also played to 1-1 draws with Tunisia, Turkey's former UEFA champions Galasataray, Nigeria and Ghana and lost 1-0 to Libya before the debacle against Denmark.
Before the game, the Olympic team, a younger version of the seniors, took to the same field to play its counterpart from Russia. The Egyptians won 2-1 and many in the crowd were heard calling for coach Shawqi Gharib to replace Saleh. Gharib was so embarrassed that he left the stadium immediately following the game.
Gharib, who led the team to the bronze medal at the World Cup, said his team's preparations for next year's Olympic Games in Athens was going as scheduled. He promised to continue the winning ways but said he feared that some of his players would be snatched up by the national team which, he added, would seriously affect his plans.
