Supersub ´Gedo´ the hero as Egypt retain African crown

February 1, 2010

Egypt entered the record books here on Sunday, beating Ghana 1-0 in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations with supersub Mohamed ‘Gedo’ Nagy lifting the Pharaohs to their third straight title.

Gedo, who has scored from the bench in Egypt’s last four games in Angola, came on in the 63rd minute and produced his magic with five minutes left on the clock to cement Egypt’s standing as the kings of Africa.

The win also gave veteran coach Hassan Shehata a history-making third championship after Cairo in 2006 and Accra in 2008 and extended Egypt’s unbeaten record in the competition to an astonishing 19 games.

Shehata’s assistant, Shawky Garib, said: “I’d like to congratulate Ghana for what they did today (Sunday).

“It’s important to take your chance, and today we took it. But we respect the Ghana team, they played a very good match today.

“We said we were the champions from the first day we arrived in Angola, and we would defend our title.

“We have won three titles in 2006, 2008 and 2010. This was the most difficult of all of them.”

Ghana coach Milovan Rajevic, who has worked wonders to put the World Cup qualifiers into their first continental final in 18 years with most of his top players injured, commented: “We are not so experienced, we wanted to win it so badly in our hearts but in the end Egyptian experience was crucial.”

Egypt were unchanged from the XI that crushed Algeria 4-0 in the semi-finals save for the absence of suspended defender Mahmoud Fatalla – former Spurs midfielder Hossam Ghaly started in his place.

Ghana named an identical line-up to their last four win over Nigeria, with captain Richard Kingson taking up residence between the posts despite a late fitness scare.

The Black Stars made it to the final playing pragmatic rather than beautiful football, but they began in enterprising fashion, matching the Egyptians for speed and dexterity.

In-form striker Asamoah Gyan had an early shot go high over the Pharaoh’s crossbar and Serie A-based Kwadwo Asamoah had a long range effort safely scooped up by Essam al-Hadary as the supposed ‘underdogs’ counter attacked with menace.

Towards the end of the first period both skipper Ahmed Hassan, on his 172nd international appearance, and Emad Motaeb, failed to connect with a floating 25m Egyptian freekick into the box.

Honours even it was as the sides re-emerged after the break with the 50,000 capacity Chinese-built stadium by now three-quarters full and the near 40 degree heat which greeted the players at kick-off cooling down as night fell.

Opoku Agyemang went into Mali referee Coulibaly Koman’s book for an ill-judged tackle on Ahmed al-Mohamady and not to be outdone Egypt’s Sayed Moawad picked up a yellow card seconds later for handball.

Koman had his hand in his pocket again to fish out a card for al-Mohamady after a collision with Opoku.

The game badly needed a goal but what it got was another booking, this time Ghaly for pulling Asamoah.

Shehata brought on supersub Gedo with 20 minutes left for Motaeb hoping the Al-Ittihad striker would repeat his magic.

Ghana’s best chance came in the 78th minute when al-Hadary did well to punch away Gyan’s lethal looking 28m freekick as Ghana’s youngsters had Egypt’s red shirts on the run.

Then unbelievably, with the game heading towards extra-time, Gedo conjured up the decisive goal with a sublime 1-2 with Zidan down the left to slot an angled shot past Kingson.

LUANDA (AFP)

Tags: ACCRA, africa cup of nations, captain richard, crossbar, dexterity, egyptian experience, four games, garib, gedo, ghaly, gyan, pharaohs, record books, semi finals, unbeaten record, veteran coach, world cup qualifiers

Italy coach Lippi says no to openly gay couples

August 26, 2009

Italy coach Marcello Lippi on Wednesday said he would not select two players for his squad if they were openly involved in a homosexual relationship. But the veteran coach, who led Italy to World Cup glory in 2006, insisted that choice was not due to homophobia but due to the requirements of team morale. “In the current climate, two national team players could never be involved in an open relationship,” he told a web-TV station. “This is not a question of culture but is more related to the fact that such a relation would create conflicts contrary to the interests of the dynamics of the group. “Imagine how a homosexual couple in football would be perceived. “Even if, socially, most people would support and understand such a situation it would nonetheless become magnified and eventually would be viewed negatively.” Lippi has previously stated that in 40 years in football he has never met a homosexual and that there are no gay players. He also said that he would have no problems picking a gay player but that person would find it hard to live as an openly gay footballer.

ROME (AFP)

Tags: AFP, climate, coach marcello lippi, conflicts, fact, gay couples, gay players, homosexual couple, homosexual relationship, Italy, italy coach, lippi, marcello, marcello lippi, open relationship, ROME, team morale, tv station, veteran coach, web tv, Wednesday, world cup glory

Olsen answers Norwegian call again

January 15, 2009

OSLO (AFP) – Veteran coach Egil Olsen is to take the reins of the Norwegian national side for a second time, he revealed on Wednesday, initially on a temporary basis.

The 66-year-old, who guided Norway to the 1994 and 1998 World Cup finals on the only occasions they had reached that stage since World War II, will be in charge for three friendlies including one against 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa on March 28.

It is not sure whether he will remain in charge to take on the challenge of trying to revive Norway’s virtually non existent hopes of qualifying for the World Cup finals – Norway are bottom of their group with just two points and behind sides such as Iceland and Macedonia.

"My agreement with the NFF (the Norwegian Football Federation) is all in order," said Olsen, who is known as ‘Drillo’ after his dribbling skills he displayed as a Norwegian international. "There are just a few minor details to sort out.

One of those details that had to be sorted out was that Olsen, who had an unsuccessful spell as coach of then top tier English side Wimbledon in 1999 and more recently a short-lived one with the Iraqi national side, ended a business agreement with betting company Expekt, which he says has been done.

"Expekt has not raised any objections, but it had to be agreed at the highest level. That took more time, but now it is in order."

Written by: AFP