Road to Athens fogs up
Egyptian football fell flat on its face in the first hurdle to the Olympics,
reports Mohamed El-Sayed
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Despite the effort of Egypt's Hosni Abd-Rabbou, the olympic home team lost its qualifier game to Nigeria at Cairo Stadium
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Egypt's Olympic team continued its series of dismal performances, going down 2-0 at home to Nigeria at the start of group qualifiers for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The loss came on the heels of an early exit by the team from the All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria after first round losses to Cameroon and Algeria.
In Cairo on Sunday, although the Egyptians pressed from the start, they failed to translate the chances that came their way. Egypt did go close in the 16th minute through Wael Riad but that was merely the Nigerian cue for the opener in the 18th minute.
In the 29th minute, Mohamed Mohsen Abu Greisha, all alone in the area, did not do justice to Mohamed Zidane's tantalising pass, sending instead a weak shot into the hands of the Nigerian goalkeeper. With the Egyptian defence in tatters, the Nigerians capitalised on the situation, scoring the second in the 43rd minute by way of an acrobatic header.
In injury time Riad could have brought Egypt back into the game but missed a penalty kick plus a follow-up diving header.
After the interval, the Egyptians pressed but without any real threats on goal. The Egyptian offence was largely toothless in the absence of Marseille striker Mido. On the other hand, Nigeria's sleek passing and ability to create space resulted in bitter Egyptian supporters rooting for the Super Eagles.
Egypt's hopes of qualifying for Athens 2004 are still alive though as the two other teams in the group, Tunisia and Senegal, drew in a goalless encounter on Saturday.
In club competition, Egypt fared infinitely better as all three clubs playing in the Arab Champions League easily made it to the second round.
Ahli was the first Egyptian team to qualify for the second stage in the Arab Champions League, beating Hasaniyyit Aghadir of Morocco 3-0 in an anti-climatic encounter in Cairo Stadium last week. Having snatched an away goalless draw with the Moroccans in the first leg three weeks ago, a win for Ahli in Cairo appeared only natural. Indeed, only two minutes after the start, Ahli took the lead after a Moroccan scored an own goal. The defender directed Ahmed Bilal's cross from the left flank into his team's net for the opener.
Following the goal, Ahli dominated, thanks to the prairie space the Moroccans allowed in midfield. That led to Ahli's second goal in the 11th minute through Osama Hosni's unchallenged header after a pinpoint pass from the left flank by midfielder Mohamed Shawqi. Shawqi later received an injury that will rule him out for two months.
In the 25th minute, Bilal, returning to form after a slow start in the season, executed a high- quality lob from the edge of the area over the advancing Moroccan goalkeeper, resulting in the third goal.
As is the habit of most Egyptian teams that take significant first half leads, Ahli failed to capitalise on their supremacy over the Moroccan side, missing several chances to extend their lead after the break. Individual performances was the prevalent feature of the Egyptian squad.
Meanwhile, Hasaniyyit Aghadir rearranged their ranks in an attempt to narrow the difference, threatening Ahli's defence more than once. However, their attempts to pull themselves back into the game went begging.
Ahli's victory was clouded by the news that the club's football director Thabit El-Batal had indefinitely banned star but mercurial midfielder Ibrahim Said from playing after Said complained to the club's board of directors, claiming that El- Batal had insulted and beat him during a routine training session last week. Rumours had it as well that Said had signed a two-year contract with Zamalek, Ahli's traditional arch enemy.
A day after Ahli's convincing win, Zamalek did even better, trouncing Sporting of Mauritania 5-1 to move into the second round of the same event. Having defeated Mauritania 2-1 in the first leg, Zamalek's home encounter was seen as nothing more than a cruise in celebration of their qualifying for the 16-team stage.
Zamalek got off to the start they wanted when Abdel-Halim Ali fired them ahead after six minutes. Ali scored the second in the 14th minute after a cross by left winger Tarek El-Sayed who, along with Tarek El-Said, formed an active left flank that provided the attackers with most of their chances.
Several golden opportunities were missed before El-Said made a solo run, splitting the Mauritanian defence, then simply rolled the ball into the net for the third goal in the 32nd minute.
Sporting replied with three long-range shots which sailed just wide of Zamalek's post.
Zamalek dropped a notch after the break, allowing the Mauritanians to reinforce their defence. Still, Zamalek's Portuguese head coach Vingada made a double substitution, sending on striker Gamal Hamza and left winger Mohamed Abul-Ela for attacker Sameh Youssef and midfielder Tamer Abdel-Hamid in an attempt to extend the lead. Hamza capitalised on the two chances that came his way, scoring the fourth and fifth goals that sealed Zamalek's victory.
Dwahi Missa of Sporting managed to score his team's only goal after sending a thumping shot into the net.
In Ismailia, the Ismaili-Mawludiyyit Wahran encounter exploded with eight goals, six belonging to Ismaili.
Having snatched a 1-1 away draw with the Algerians in the first leg, Ismaili, or the Dervishes, promised their fans a carnival of goals and high- class performance in the second. They did not disappoint as they provided full value for the capacity crowd.
Six minutes after the kick-off, Ismaili right winger Islam El-Shatir sent a cross into the area which Algerian goalkeeper Asimi Mohamed should have collected, but seemed to take his eye off the ball, leaving attacker Gabti, in his first appearance, to jab it into the unguarded net.
Ismaili built up pressure, leading to the second goal by Malian Dramane Trawre in the 24th minute. With the Algerian defence in tatters, Trawre, again, sent a header into the Algerian net for his second goal and his team's third.
Only one minute after the interval, the Algerian Libri Mirsal sent Ismaili's Islam El-Shatir's cross from the right into his net, scoring the fourth goal for the Dervishes. Four minutes later, Gabti scored his second.
In their attempt to pull themselves back into the game, Mawludiyyit scored from two free kicks by Dawud Sufyan that beat goalkeeper Mohamed Sobhi who was caught napping.
But again, the Algerian net was stricken by friendly fire as defender Zidane Mohamed sent a header into his goal in the 26th minute for goal No 6 and an emphatic 6-2 victory.
The winning 16 teams were divided into four groups of four. The top eight Arab African teams were further divided into two groups of four which will play in a mini-league format. Zamalek are in Group A along with Esperance and Al- Safaqisi of Tunisia and Ittihad Beleida of Algeria, while Ahli and Ismaili fell in Group B that included Al-Nagm Al-Sahili of Tunisia and Hussein Day of Algeria.
