Egypt Make Case for their Defence

Public transport in Ghana is only recommended for those of a quiet disposition and even temper. There are two main means of inter-city transport, the buses or the tro-tros. A bus is an easy option, tickets are on sale in advance, with a timetable (even though it is likely to be ignored). The tro-tro is the popular method of transit though. These consist of mini-buses which can squeeze in 22 passengers. They run without a timetable – you just go to the station and take a seat on the one heading to your destination. The bus simple starts when it is full, which when travelling between the two main cities, is never going to be a long wait.

This does not actually describe the chaos one has to navigate to get through the tro-tro station. At the entrance, you are met by various touts trying either to divert your attention to some other (more expensive and unlicensed) form of transport, or to direct you to the correct bus, in return for a small tip. You then get on a half full bus, which slowly becomes fuller and more cramped. Outside, hawkers are selling everything you may need for the trip from a plastic bag of water, to ladies underwear, all carrying their wares in baskets on their heads. The noise was intense and those near the windows acted as middlemen, passing coins and goods through. For the record, the only thing I bought was water.

The road from Accra to Kumasi is not a poor road at all, and is all properly surfaced except a couple where works were in progress. As you go away from town, all you can see of the villages tends to be a number of commercial properties to the road, residences could be spotted through the trees but the red dirt tracks that led to them were not always visible. It did not appear that much if any of the land was under cultivation, and livestock was also absent from my view. This appeared to change in the last 100 km, as we moved into the Ashanti province. Here the villages appeared bigger and great red tracts of earth marked the roads up to the housing. Eventually after five hours in the bus we arrived at the busy feeling city of Kumasi. Without the sea breezes enjoyed by Accra, it felt a much hotter town. With the various members of our party at odds about our plans, and in which order to do them in, I did not get a good look around the town, but a simple walk down one busy street. Still, I am due to return here later, so next time I may get a look around.

At the stadium, I talked to someone who had come up on the bus from Accra. Far from running to the timetable, it actually left about two hours late – and my friend had taken the official advice to arrive a full 60 minutes before scheduled departure. He came close to missing the start of the matches in Kumasi.

The stadium is based on a single tier built up quite high over around half the pitch’s circumference, and then dropping lower for the curve behind the south goal. This has the scoreboard positioned above it. A very modern stand runs down one length of the ground, and this is where I was watching from. The capacity is given as 20,000 and I would say it was well over half full for the game. The popular areas are behind the goal and these were closed to full. The more expensive seats along the side did not appear to have much over 50% take up. Again, the stands come down low to the running track level, and although a clear plastic is used for the fencing, you need to be at least a dozen rows back to secure a good view. Anyone missing out can console themselves with the news that overuse of fencing, both wire and plastic means that many of the VIP seats in the stand, and certainly the corners of the press box also do not enjoy good views.

Egypt picked a very domestic team, with eight players in the local leagues, joined only by Zidan (Hamburg), Shawky (Middlesbrough) and Gomaa (Al-Siliya in Qatar). Cameroon’s squad was international, or to be accurate European in its base. Geremi (Newcastle) and Andre Bikey (Reading). Samuel Eto’o of Barcelona led the line, while Idris Kameni, the keeper is with cross city rivals Espanyol. The French and German Leagues provide 3 players each, and Rigobert Song now plays for Galatasaray.

The Hamburg forward Mohamed Zidan, playing just behind the front two appeared to be the most dangerous player in the early stages, failing the find a shot when in space in the second minute. In the 12th minute he broke right and fired the ball across the face of the goal. Everyone missed this, but Abdel Moteleb was beyond the far post, and his attempt to cross it back in was met by a hand. Moteleb himself took the penalty, stopping a pace short of the spot on his first attempt, which the referee rightly deemed as unacceptable, and then thundering in a second attempt. Three minutes later Zidan again was on the ball, this time scoring to double the lead. Despite playing an attacking variant of 4-5-1 where the midfielders play a V with Stephane Mbia at the base, and the two wingers, both pushed up in support of the Eto’o. Cameroon failed to make any impression on the Egyptian defence in the first half. A defence that one felt looked somewhat more secure than it had done at the start of Egypt’s run to win the title two years ago. Egypt played with three centre halves, a four man midfield, and Zidan, as I have already mentioned behind the front two. Cameroon’s failure in trying to gain the initiative in midfield led to them replacing Jean Makoun by Benfica’s Augustin Binya eight minutes before the break. Having taken the early double lead, Egypt did not manage to create many more chances in the first half, but had little trouble stifling any creativity from Cameroon. The without warning, in the second minute of injury time, Zidan struck again and the holders were 3-0 up.

Cameroon tried a further double substitution at half time to try and revamp their midfield. On came Achille Emana of Toulouse and Arsenal youngster Alexandre Song. This brought a quick return with the ball finally being delivered to the wing. Gerermi overlapping on the right and providing the cross for Eto’o to score in the 50th minute. Although after this, the crowd’s preference for Cameroon became audible whenever they attacked, (and most of the attacks were coming through Geremi on the right wing), Egypt did not appear to be greatly troubled, still they took off Zakry Mansour from the attack and star player Zidan and took a more defensive stance.

Cameroon’s weakness is that Eto’o is a world class player, but he is also the team’s weakness in so far as they try to play everything through him, rather than using the wings and letting him enter the fray at the most important time. Egypt’s strength by comparison is their ability to let players have their freedom on the ball. And so in the 80th minute, Moteleb took a shot from 30 yards, surprising everyone and increasing Egypt’s lead to 4-1. After annoying the crowd by denying several Cameroon appeals for penalties, the referee finally relented, even though the offence was still not clear from the sidelines to allow Eto’o to shoot from the spot and bring the score to 4-2 during injury time

The second game is to be an African affair. Sudan are the only team to use local players only in their team, and indeed only two clubs are involved. League champions Al-Hilal provide seven of the eleven, while runners-up (and cup winners) Al-Merrikh provide the rest. Zambia have a single player, Joseph Mulenga of Strasbourg playing in Europe. Three of the starting line up play in Zambia, and another three in Angola (all for Primerio de Agosta). The remaining quartet play in the South African League. The crowd did thin out during the break between games, but I would say that well over half stayed in place. Zambia attacked from the off, and were rewarded quickly with James Chamanga opening the scoring in the second minute. Chamanga threatened again as Zambia took most of the opening stages, but a shot from Bader Galag flashed across the goal in the 12 minute, striking the far post and warning that Sudan were not to be taken too lightly. As the half moved on, we saw more signs that the Sudanese were not here just to make up numbers, while the Zambian were attacking less, and were being pushed onto the back foot. Faisal Agab shot narrowly wide on the half hour mark, as Zambia struggled to contain Sudan. At least any embarrassment suffered by the team may not be so easily noticed at home. Zambia, along with Nigeria were the most prominent of a number of countries affected by a big increase in the cost of TV rights for this tournament, the Zambians were reportedly asked US$1.5 million for coverage, ten times what they expected to pay. The result is that the matches can only be seen by those with satellite TV.

The second half started with Sudan still trying to break down the Zambian defence, but they fell again to an early attack – a little confusion in defence and the ball is shifted towards the post when Mulenga heads in the second goal, they added a third in the 59th minute, putting the result beyond doubt, this time through Felix Katonga. There was a further drift in the crowd as the chance of a shock receded, but there was no time during the paid of games when the stadium did not echo with the sounds of drums and trumpets, while the love of the underdog was shown by a roar whenever Sudan attacked.

So it finishes with the crowd appreciating the brave try by Sudan, but it has to be said they are just not good enough. Zambia have got the start they wanted, but the group still lies with Egpyt and Cameroon