Never before

In an historic first for Egyptian football, a second division team captured the Cup of Egypt. Mohamed El-Sayed sees how the Arab Contractors put their name up in lights

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The Arab Contractors celebrating the Cup of Egypt for the third time photo: Mohamed Abul-Enein

The Arab Contractors did what no other Egyptian team has -- becoming the first second division team to win the 82-year-old football Cup competition. And they did so by beating Ahli, the team which have won the most cup titles in the country -- 32.

Lifting the cup in 1990 and 1995, Friday's 2-1 victory was the third cup for the Contractors and certainly their most dramatic.

The Cairo-based Contractors have few supporters but last week's match drew 5,000 fans hoisting large yellow and black banners, the team's colours. The crowd might have been lured by the club's promise to give every supporter who went to the stadium LE10, a T- shirt and a meal.

"I was well aware that Ahli are not used to being attacked; they are used to attacking all the time and do not expect the other side to take the initiative," Hassan Shehata, the Contractor's head coach who took the responsibility of the team just a month ago, said. "So I asked my players to take the initiative and not to take a defensive approach. That was the main reason behind our victory."

It was the fourth time Ahli had lost in the cup final and perhaps it was the oddest of defeats, having placed a defender in goal in the second half after substituting there three players.

The loss meant nothing for Ahli to show this year. They were eliminated from the African Champions League, withdrew from the Arab Champions League and lost the national league title to their arch foes Zamalek for the fourth consecutive year. Lifting the cup would have been the last chance for the Red Devils to show something this season. The unexpected defeat, however, marked a dismal end to one of the worst seasons in the history of the giant club.

Obviously, Ahli, the African club of the century, will have to do some serious soul- searching following the unprecedented series of failures.

"I am not going to cite excuses for what happened today; but this is football. It was not our day," said Ahli's Portuguese head coach Manuel Jose, who took complete responsibility for his team's dramatic fall.

Jose's starting line-up caused a flood of post-match criticism. Many wondered why he had kept players who could have made a difference beside him on the sidelines, then made three substitutions all at once at half- time which was to cost the club dearly.

Though Mohamed Gouda fired the devils ahead in the 35th minute when he steered home a piercing free-kick, the Contractors' Nigerian import Robert Acoroi equalised three minutes later via his own direct kick. Before the goals, the Contractors dominated the first half and posed constant danger to goalkeeper Amir Abdel-Hamid.

Trying to remedy the situation, Jose introduced Khaled Bibo, Mohamed El-Zayyat and Gilberson after the first half, thus using up all three substitutions and risking the possibility that a player might be injured or tire.

For a time, the changes paid off as Ahli went into second gear but what Ahli feared happened: goalkeeper Abdel-Hamid was forced to leave following an ankle injury. Defender Shadi Mohamed was selected to stand in goal for the remaining 15 minutes.

Ahli could still have won had they converted a controversial penalty kick in the 44th minute. But Gouda, who had played a key role in his team's road to the final, wasted as keeper El-Aqabawi dived for the save. The Contractors' Alaa Abdel-Ghani was later red- carded for blaming referee Essam Abdel- Fattah for the penalty kick, evening the teams to 10 players apiece.

A last-minute goal by the Contractors' Mohamed Fahim was what fate had in store for the devils, dashing all the red hopes of offering a consolation cup for their supporters.

"Wasting the penalty kick changed the run of the match," Jose said. "However, I cannot blame Gouda. Many world-class players waste such kicks.

"We were defeated before the game started because the players were afraid of losing. This doesn't make sense because a [giant] team like Ahli should not think about anything other than winning. We still lack players who are strong in character and who can confront and deal with difficult situations."