Barrelling along

The oil company club Enppi rewrote the usual script. Mohamed El-Sayed reports on the cup final

---

Click to view caption

Enppi celebrate their first ever cup win

There was no Ahli, Zamalek or Ismaili. A final football cup devoid of big name clubs.

On Friday the stage was set for lesser lights. Ittihad, though one of Egypt's venerable institutions and a six-time cup winner, had not tasted cup victory in 30 years. For Enppi, the oil company, this was only its third league season and first cup final.

In the end, Enppi entered the chronicles of Egyptian football beating Ittihad of Alexandria 1-0.

It took Enppi 108 minutes before they hit the winner that secured their first major soccer success since the club's creation in 1990. Magdi Abdel-Aati came to the rescue a few minutes after he was introduced into the match, having received a through pass from his teammate Amr Zaki that brought him face to face with Ittihad's goalkeeper.

In the final that took place in the Arab Contractors Stadium in Cairo both teams refrained from going on the offensive -- especially Ittihad which wanted to live up to the expectations of thousands of their fans who travelled 250 kilometres from the coastal city of Alexandria to Cairo in support of their club. The game was dull and devoid of any fine touch or excitement except in precious few occasions. Ittihad, who last won the cup in 1975, tried to kill the time in the hope that they could drag Enppi into a shoot-out. Ittihad coach Talaat Youssef was apparently aiming at playing the safe game until he could hit a winner, the same way he snatched the lone goal against Ahli when he was a player in the final of 1976.

On the other hand, Enppi, who finished second in the premiership behind champions Ahli, were trying to finish Ittihad off in regulation time to avoid the vagaries of football in the shoot-out marathon. But most of their attacks were fruitless.

"What's special about this championship is that it bears the name of Egypt," said Taha Bisri, Enppi's head coach after the game. "Lifting the Egyptian Cup was the result of years of hard work, planning and good organisation," added Bisri who was one of Zamalek and Egypt's most renowned and established footballers in the 1970s.

"I succeeded in charging the imagination of my players with the glamour of standing on the podium lifting the cup...and they did it."

Asked about the low level of performance his team displayed during the game, Bisri said it was normal in the final of a cup. "A minor mistake could have cost us losing it."

Youssef said the game was the best his team could do. "I excuse my players for this is what they can do. I am satisfied with their performance."

Now Enppi will have the choice of either playing next year in the African Champions League -- they are the runners-up of the national league -- or the CAF Cup in their capacity as cup holders.