first of all, we all must be grateful to the fans of both because the match ended without troubles as expected. the behavior of the fans just proves how ignorant and unprofessional our media is. they said it will be a battle and that there will be fights and so, but in reality it was something different. ahly fans called for mahmoud hamza, a zamalek fan who died two days ago because of cancer, a thing which was received by applause from zamalek fans.

the game itself was more defensive than open. each team played to secure its goal and didn’t take risks especially at the beginning. it seems that every team was afraid of the other or to be more accurate every team was discovering the other. there were very few missed chances if any at all.

as expected, the midfield battle was the focus of each team. no one prevailed but they exchanged control across the game. also the left wing side for ahly -right side for zamalek- was one of the hot areas of the field. you may find more than 4 or 5 players at this area. both goal keepers weren’t examined except for the goals and one or two chances.

Ahly
winning another derby,continuing to prevail, the team played a very good game and presented an excellent team work and proved their tactical abilities.the new signing proved to be worth especially Ahmed hassan who was chosen to be man of the match by FIFA.

they stated with 3 in the defense line shady Mohamed , wael gomaa and ahmed el sayed. the three has done a good job helped by the lack of strikers from zamalek.

on the right wing, played barakat who disappeared in many parts of the game and was dangerous on zamalek defense in other parts.

on the left side, gilberto was the key of the game for ahly. he was involved in both goals, in the first he took advantage from Mohamed abd allah’s mistake and crossed the ball to flavio who put it at th back of the net. in the second half all the focus was on his side as two players from zamalek marked him.

in midfield, ahmed hassan exerted huge effort and didn’t mis pass a lot and eventually was awarded with the winner of the match.

in attack, emad meteb and flavio were absent except in the goal however they assisted players from midfield and wings to create chances.

manuel jose should work on his defense as it seemed to be open at some parts of the game. with the addition of other signings who didn’t play this game, the team seems to be unstoppable.

Zamalek
best performance for the team since henry michel left, they played pretty well except for the two silly mistakes committed from mohamed abd allah and the scatter of the wall in the second goal.rather than the two goals, they were equal to ahly

however they seemed to play without wings as osama hassan on the left wing was almost absent in the match and didn’t form any kind of danger on ahly’s defense. on the other hand mohamed abd allah was more dangerous than useful for the team.

in midfield, ayman abd el aziz put up a very good performance; however, he was a little bit physical in his playing which may lead him to be booked or even shown red cards in the future.

in attack, agogo played his first match in egypt and his chemistry wasn’t at its best with other players while gamal hamza was the star of the team scoring a beautiful goal with the help of wael gomaa.

the team needs more time to get better but they showed they have very good potentials.

Notes
- it looks like it will be one hell of a season considering what we have seen in this match. the competition will be be very high between ahly and zamalek and maybe ENPPI and ismaily will join them.

-the referee was fair but he whistled for a lot of fouls which killed the game.

-arts of the stands were empty because of bad organization, tickets were sold to ahly fans more than there share that’s why there side of the stadium was over crowded

-every team is getting ready for the next derby in the super cup. a highly anticipated game indeed.

-emad meteb deal with bristol city is about to be canceled because the English club didn’t want him to play in the match.

here are the goals

This time the derby is like no other; it is the opener of group stage’s matches in the African champions league and the season opener for both Egyptian football’s power houses. Tension is at its highest between the two sets of fans after a very hot transfer season in which each club managed to snatch players and spoil some deals from the other.

both teams will be fighting for this cup to be ahead of the other and to prove they are the best as both teams enjoy a successful record in african championships. zamalek was the first African team to win the champions league 5 times:1984, 1986, 1993, 1996 and 2002. on the the other hand, ahly won it also 5 times in 1982 , 1987, 001m 2005 and 2006 (runners up last time).

Preparing for the game, Ahly held a preparation camp in Germany and played three friendlies against third division and amateur teams winning with huge margins before he tested himself against second division side Kaiserslautren and tied with them 1-1. However, the technical staff of the team expressed their satisfaction from the camp and said that they achieved their goals from it. The team then returned to Cairo and continued its preparations behind closed doors.

On the other hand, Zamalek started its preparation camp in Alexandria at the naval academy for one week then they moved to 6th of October city and stayed there till the end of the camp. The team played 4 friendlies against local Egyptian side, won two against Haras el hdood and el geisha and tied in two against Tersana and the national bank.

Both teams added new valuable signings to their squad who will be put to the test. Ahly signed Ahmed Hassan, national team captain, Qatari player Hussein Yasser el Mohamady, striker Ahmed Hassan Farag from Ghazl el Mahalla and Sayed Moawad national team’s wing left.

Zamalek signed German coach Riner Hollman as a new coach for the team replacing Rud Croll as well as former Zamalek player, Tarek Yehia as the new general manager. Concerning players, Ghana’s first striker Junior Agogo from Nottingham Forest, Ayman Abd el Aziz from ginchlerberlgi and Hani Saied from Ismaily are the most significant new signings.

However, it will be difficult to judge them from their first match as their chemistry with other players won’t be at its best.

Major absentees from the game will be injured Ahly star Abu Trika and from Zamalek suspended talented player Shikabala and striker Amr Zaki who is on the brink of a move to Wigan athletic in England.

Security measures taken for the game are very high. There will be hidden cameras to monitor the fans attitude and spot trouble makers, also there will be heavy security presence at the gates of the stadium and among the fans to stop any trouble from going far.

The referee of the game, Coofy Codja from Benin is an experienced referee and has arbitrated many matches in Egypt.

This is the first game of the season for both teams so it will be difficult to expect high technical performance because the players won’t be at their top form; adding to that the tension accompanying the game.

Players to keep an eye on are Ahmed Hassan from Ahly and Junior Agogo from Zamalek. Fans will be looking at them to see if they are worth all the speculations and money paid for them.

The possibility of participation of Emad Meteb who recently moved to Bristol city at the English championship isn’t confirmed yet. The player wants to play but Manuel Jose, Ahly’s coach wants to field those who will continue with him.

The same goes to Hani Saied, who has just joined other players in training two days ago after a transfer that took very long time.

possible formations:

Ahly:

……………………..Amir abd el hamid………..
mohamed barakat…..wael gomaa…..shady mohamed……ahmed el sayed….sayed moawad
…………………….hossam ashour………………gilberto…………………
……………………………………ahmed hassan…………………….
………………emad meteb (ahmed belal)………………………..flavio………..

Zamalek:

……………………………………..Abd el monsef (abd el wahed)………….
ahmed ghanem….amr el safty(wesam el abdy)…..ahmed magdy…… fathallah……osama hassan
…………………………….ayman abd el aziz……….abo el ela (ahmed abd el raouf)
……………………………………………..gamal hamza………………….
……………………..abd el halim ali…………………….junior agogo

key match-ups:

wael gomaa vs. agogo: very physical challenge, i am really interested to see the outcome
ayman abd el aziz vs ahmed hassan: who will win the midfield battle?????
new signings vs the fans and the media: let’s see if they are worth it!!!!
both teams vs first goal: the one who will score first, most probably will emerge victorious
ultras ahlawy vs ultras whit knights: i just hope it will end up peacefully, it will be loud and crazy though!!!!

prediction: 1-1, i just feel it!!!

All Africa will be watching so Egyptian football should appear at its best.

meanwhile, u-19 national team won the return leg in Zimbabwe 1-0 and now they qualified to the third round and will wait for the winner from Zambia and Mauritius. the only goal was scored by marwan Mohamed. i don’t need to remind that this team is the team who is gong to play in the world cup held in egypt next summer. all the best for these young talents.

in other news,

-emad meteb almost finished the deal with bristol city club and may play the next derby on 20th of july. he is now in england making medical and technical tests before signing contracts. good luck to him abroad although i thought he is worth a much better club than a team playing in the championship!!!.

- Ibrahim said joined ismaily from Anqara sport and is training now with the team. he said he came to restore his place as the best defender in egypt, is he true in what he says???we will see.

ismaily are now looking for a coach after they were about to reach a deal with a Belgian one but he apologized in the last minutes.

that’s all for now, from now on we will be talking about the upcoming derbies

Scene one, hosni abd raboh, best players in African cup 2008 still doesn’t know until now where is he going to play next season. After his loan period from racing club Strasbourg of france to ismaily ended, it was supposed that ismaily had a buyout clause in his contract and the French side claimed that by the deadline set on June 30th 2007, Ismaili hadn’t paid the transfer fees and so Abd-Rabou was sold to Ahli who paid 700.000 euros to get him on permanent base. But then ismaily raised the issue to Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) which gave its rule in ahly’s favor. The story didn’t end yet, ismaily officials announced they reached a deal with Strasbourg to keep the player by paying 300,000 euros for Strasbourg in addition to the previous 500 000 euros paid last year.

Scene two, after zamalek won Egypt cup in may, wigan athletic club of England presented an offer to buy the team’s star striker amr zaki. Previously the club administration pledged amr that if the club wins the cup they will let him go but then the club decided to keep him at least until the two ahly clashes later in july. The player insisted he should leave and complained to the Egyptian football association that the club didn’t pay him all his dues and wanted to terminate his contract. From its side, the club said that amr received all his dues and what he didn’t receive were sanctions imposed on him. later, amr went to talk with the club president but no agreement was reached, amr then went out to and told the media that mamdooh abbas-club president- hit him and that he won egypt cup by himself and that he was playing with second-class players!!!.

Scene three, hani said was about to join zamalek and actually signed pre-contract agreement to join the club but then he refused to sign final contracts and announced his desire to join rivals ahly. Zamalek’s goalkeeper Mohamed abd el monsef said that hani with the help of mercenaries assaulted him and stole the contracts while he was in his way to meet the club administrative to go register the contracts in the FA.

since things reached police then something must be wrong, i don’t know how could a player manipulate clubs in this way and how can a club manipulate another club in this way. is the player even worthy???

what does it mean when clubs attempt to spoil each others deals jut to make the opponent weak, is this fair play!!!.

what does it mean when ismaily fans carry a players’ tomb and threaten him with death infront of his house to prevent him from going to another club!!!

what does it mean when ahly fans are accusing hassan shehata of conspiracy and say that he allowed people from zamalek and ismaily to negotiate with players during the national team’s camp and he is challenging ahly by putting el hadary in the goal, therefore, they are boycotting the national team!!!

what does it mean when players are manipulating everybody (clubs,fans….) just for their own interest, they will only play for who pays most, trashing any respect for the word they gave to someone.

the result is, ahly fans feel they were oppressed by the football association and zamalek fans loaded with problems more than they can bare and a derby is ahead on june 20, all i wish is that it ends peacefully!!.

in the middle of all this, there is an unprofessional, biased media, all what they think about is sales and for that they may do anything from spreading lies and increasing tension between fans. as well as ignorant officials who doesn’t know the rules and regulations and even if they know it they don’t apply it fairly!!.

the situation can’t be described except with pathetic, and if things are going to be like this from now on, then we better stop playing football in egypt.

1- the schedule of the Egyptian league has been scheduled. the league will start on the 8th of august and ends at 15th of may. the first week will be having some good matches,

Ghazl el mahalla - Zamalek
Ahly - Olympic club (recently promoted)
Ismaily - ENPPI
Police(recently promoted) - Egypt Telecom
Assiut petroleum - Tersana
Petrojet - Haras el hdood
Arab contractors - El geish
Ittihad - Masry

Cairo derby between Ahly and Zamalek will be on the 10th week, Ahly and Ismaily will be on the fifth, Zamalek and Ismaily will be on week 13.

2- Egypt - Iran friendly has been scheduled on 20/8/2008, the match will be played in UAE but the stadium wasn’t specified yet.

3- egypt u-19 demolished Zimbabwe 5-0 in the first match of the African cup qualifiers which will be held in Rwanda January 2009. goal scorers were:ahmed hosny(43),hesham mohamed(49), ahmed magdy(61), mostafa mahmoud(72) and islam ramadan (90). this was the first official match for the team, so that was a hell of a start!!!. the away match will be on july 13.

4- shikabala was suspended for four months after fifa announce its ruling in his case raised by paok against zamalek. zamalek previously bought shikabala without paok agreement because he had to come to egypt to do his military service.

5- Ahmed Hassan was chosen to participate in anderlecht’s 100th anniversary in a match against Italian giants ac milan.

why? he says because under the light of the poor results achieved by the egyptian national team and egyptian clubs in African competitions and because of the confideration aficain de football (caf) competitions’ agenda, our players play with their lowest capacity and with their lowest fitness levels in African competitions after they have have been exhausted during the domestic season ;while their African counterparts play when they are in their highest form at the middle of their season.

he said that he is conducting a study with figures and numbers to present it to the rest of the board members.!!!!!!!

what a crazy and irrational suggestion this is, it reflects to what extent egyptian football is run haphazardly after they previously suggested that the league should be formed from 2 groups and the champions of each group play against each other in the final!!!!.

why this is a crazy thing to do:

1- i don’t know what bad results is he talking about, egypt is second in its group with goal difference only, ahly and zamalek are in the group stage of the champions league, harras el hdood are playing with sundowns in the round of 16 of the confederation cup.

2- the “honored” board member forgot that most African countries don’t use local players and depend completely on European based players, while we depend 99% on our domestic competitions. so African countries can do what they want because nothing depends on it.

3- African competition starts in January till April and then restart in july after all teams have had their break and finished their preparations.

4-he also forgot that the African cup is played January, so stupid we can’t start the season in january.

5-the world cup is played in june and that would be the middle of the season if we accept your stupid suggestion.

6- in all countries which have descent football, the season starts in September or august and ends in may, and we aren’t by any means different than them.

7- countries which apply systems like this have their own weather conditions, you can’t force players to play in the summer where it is very hot for anyone to walk in the street not run and play football.

8- you can’t just stick any bad results or performances to the time of the competition, review your polices first, when you compress three weeks in the league in one week and when u play a game from the 28th week in the 17th one!!!. you are the ones who are making the players tired and making me sick.

now with the trivia:

“what is the difference between the looney tunes and the egyptian football association?”

we were shit and they are already shit so there wasn’t anything related to football,even the two goals were a bit lucky and didn’t come from any tactical team work but from the personal skill of emad meteb who doesn’t score much but once he scores he pours!!. the first was a shot from long distance which the humble keeper failed to keep it away although it was easy, the second was a dead ball which ahmed el mohamady returned t to life again to find meteb’s head who chipped over the keeper.

we entered the match with the motivation to win but looked like there was no plan to execute inside the field and we depended on the personal skill of our players. the midfield was completely absent with abd raboh seemed to be thinking about something else and hossam ghaly got injured in the first 20 minutes (he will be out for 3 months) while ahmed hassan played like crap, always playing for himself without trying to connect with team mates, the only merit he presented was his fitness and spirit.

in the attack amr zaki, emad meteb and shikabala were like isolated islands from each other, there weren’t any 4 correct passes between them and they didn’t create danger infront of Malawi’s goal. the midfield didn’t help them though with correct and easy passes and crosses from the wings but still they didn’t make us well of the balls that reached them.

hani said ,as usual, showed a very high performance with his high technical abilities and defensive skills, he also helped in attack when possible. wael gomaa was a little bit slow and there were times when he made some sloppy defending.

el hadary was on top form saving a couple of chances at the beginning of the match that could have turned the match upside down.

Malawi was shit, the question isn’t what does this team lack but what do they have?!!, don’t be fooled with their passing in midfield they just memorized it but once they go past midfield ,they lack creativity or skill to make anything. there defense is stupid and usually stupid players resort to violence in their play which was very obvious in the match.

we won the three points and in second place with goal difference with congo so the next 2 games are must win matches. the media can calm down a little now and focus on the upcoming derby in the champions league and super cup.

now the national team camp is over, our next match will be in September. but there are rumors that we will be playing with Iran in Tehran in august so we will have to wait to see what will happen.

here are the 2 goals ( i am sorry for the commentator, bare him)

the amount of sadness and shock all Egyptian fans were in last week just proves how much a big team we are. sadness is as big as the team and the objectives of this team, for example, if the opponent lost the last match,would they be sad like us or is it just normal??; i think they will be sad but not as much or as long as we were because every team has his ambitions which vary in their type and quality!!.

when the team came back to Cairo airport after the last game, passengers and fans received them by applause. they know that this was just a match and that the African champions can jump over these “small” hurdles one by one refreshing the memory of Africa about who they are. i thing this may have left a good feeling in the players and motivated them to do better.

the bad result we had last match wasn’t just because of the absent players but also some players who played are mentally busy with other things; amr zaki is busy with his wigan transfer deal after zamalek club is reluctant to sell him, hosni abd raboh is busy with his case that is being looked at in FIFA concerning his transfer to ahly or staying in ismaily and el hadary is busy with “some” of the fans who come to egypt’s matches just to insult him after he left ahly secretly and joined sion fc. to solve all these problems, samir zaher, head of the football association held meetings with the presidents of zamalek and ahly clubs to solve the players’ issues so that they can focus in playing and his efforts has been fruitful as some problems are nearly finished.

one last thing we -and they- should know, almost all exams at schools and universites are over and there has been a call for egypt fans through the media to attend the game and the tickets are very very cheap so we can expect something like this

speaking about the fans, someone from the opponent camp called mirinda or 7-up,i am not sure, said that his players are professional and can deal with the huge crowd which is expected to attend the game. i only want to say to him: since when????.i advise him to go ask all great players from roger milla to eto and drogba how hey feel when they enter Cairo stadium!!!!!

The match

now into the match itself, putting in mind the result of the last match, we have no option except attacking attacking attacking and scoring scoring scoring not for the 3 points only but for our pride. on the other side, the opponent know that they have reached their top and achieved their biggest dream ever to beat egypt -also proves how big we are- so they have no option but to defend defend defend and this is the one and only thing most African teams can do generally and against egypt especially with their physical power and low technical abilities.

now, we have no injuries among the “selected 23 players”; emad meteb recovered from his neck injury and amr zaki is ready to score again and el hadary recovered a minor back injury that occurred this week. so i think every thing is ready.

we have to show our superior skills and technical abilities in this match, we must achieve variety in our attack: from the wings,long range shots, one-on-one situations….etc. also we have to be careful of counter attacks.

luckily, our opponent is this kind that appears occasionally every 2 years to say hello in the qualifications of the African cup or world cup and then say goodbye. correct me if i am wrong!!.

predicted line-up:

……………………………..el hadary……………………………………
abd el aziz tawfiq……..wael gomaa…..hany said……mahmoud fathallah
……………………….ahmed hassan………..hosni abd raboh………
………………………….shikabala…………………………
…………..amr zaki………………..emad meteb………….

prediction: ∞-0 for egypt

this picture was taken from the last match, somethings seems to be wrong in it, is it my pc or is it the anonymous opponent??????

word of the day: “champions are born to be champions, underdogs are born to be underdogs”

i would like to end with this quote: “7atta malawi,2amma BALAWI”, hassan el mistikawy, head of sport department in al ahram newspaper.

in the tournament, egypt beat lybia 2-1 then beat morocco 2-0 and in the last 2 matches they equalized with Algeria and Tunisia 0-0.

this Egyptian team is the team that will participate in the u-21 world cup held in egypt next year so they are called the dream team.

now, they will start getting ready for the African cup qualifiers with a good spirit.

we entered this match missing all our attackers also we are missing ahmed fathi,mohamed shawky ,sayed mowad and shady mohamed and that is 3/4 of the team who won the african cup; so it was logical that we don’t score or impress, but what shocked me is that we conceded. i am NOT saying this as an excuse but if any team in the world misses this amount of players they won’t certainly be at their top form.

i didn’t watch the match because i was very busy but generally we aren’t this kind of team who play good away from home, remember the african cup qualifiers we equalized in all our away matches. but when these teams come home i don’t need to talk about how they look like; even the biggest in the continent fear cairo stadium ask cameroon and cote d’ivoire.

to put it straight we shouldn’t be upset at all from this result and don’t start worrying about qualification for these reasons:

1- malawi isn’t a big team and not even a football team,they are now on top of the group but wait till the end and as one reader said who laughs last laughs long.

2- ALL big teams stumbled in this round, check the results of cameroon, cote d’ivoire, morocco,angola and ghana, also remember that tunisia lost in their first match at home from burkina faso!!. the question is: can you imagine these teams crashing out of the qualifiers?? i guess no.

3- mallawi won against the reserve team except el hadary and defense line

4- we will win (insha2 Allah) the 3 coming matches including congo in kinchasa because this match will be in September when we restore all our players and show what we can offer.

5- when our players feel danger they shine but as long as they feel things are easy going….. u know!!

6- i am sure that the players will have some hard time from hassan shehata after this loss, if not it will be from the media and everybody will be back to his mind; in some way we needed this win to refresh ourselves.

7- even the biggest teams in the world have difficulties in qualifiers, look at italy in euro 2008 qualifiers or even look at england which didn’t qualify at all!!.

now i have to reply to some comments i read:

1- i wasn’t arrogant or underestimating the opponent when i said malawi isn’t a match for egypt because they really aren’t, check history if u want. in fact, who started it anyway, this coach who said we will burn the Egyptian team!!!!. i dare you to ask anyone in this world where is malawi? if he even recognize it that would be an achievement for you guys!!

2- to prove i wasn’t arrogant, i never mentioned in my post the word champions!!

3- if there are all these malawi fans on the world cup blog, why don’t you start a blog???. oh wait, who cares about malawi anyway!!!!

4- it is natural how everybody hates the champions, see how italy is hated after they won the world cup. but unfortunately haters will continue their hate until 2010!!!!

that’s all, now i will leave you with this video just to remind everybody who we are??


cheer up egypt fans and i won’t say Egyptians.