Archived News - 20th November 2006

African Cup of Nations News

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Egypt 1

South Africa 0
Moteab (2 mins)  

Griffin Park, London, England, 15-11-06

By Barney Cullum

Emad Moteab- of newly re-crowned African Champions League winners Al Ahly- hit a deft lob after just two minutes to give Egypt a 1-0 victory in London on Wednesday night. The narrow victory earned the Pharaohs sweet revenge for their shock defeat to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana on home soil back in January.

While Hassam Shehata’s side recovered from that ignominious loss at Cairo’s International Stadium and went on to lift a record fifth African Cup of Nations crown in February, Ted Dumitru’s South Africa slumped to a new low in that competition, finishing sixteenth out of sixteen and exiting centre stage woefully early, without a single win, point or even a goal.

The gulf in class was not quite so apparent in this showdown, however, where South Africa arguably deserved to take away another shock victory after dominating possession throughout much of the second half, certainly at least a draw would have been merited for Pitso Mosimane in his last match in caretaker charge.

Bafana were up against it from the start, though, with Moteab eluding the offside trap easily to give Egypt a priceless early lead to defend as he stroked the ball over and around Rowen Fernandez in the South Africa goal.

South Africa’s fans were outnumbered four-to-one by Egypt’s noisy crowd but Bafana looked determined to put up a fight for their English-based followers, not to mention the 50-plus scouts in attendance in West London.

Mosimane packed his midfield with players accustomed to playing centrally, entrusting his full-backs to provide the side with width bombing forward from their defensive starting positions. The tactics worked well and Siphwe Shabala, of Free State Stars, Borussia Dortmund’s Stephen Pienar and Club Bruges’s Elrio van Heerden for the most part succeeded in preventing Ahmed Hassan and Hossam Ghaly from running the show as they otherwise might well have done.

The legendary skipper Hassan has been one of the most cultured players to come out of Africa in the last decade or so whilst Ghaly has established himself at Tottenham Hotspur this year with some very confident displays, so the pair really could have dictated the game for the North African giants had they been allowed to.

Sadly for South Africa Shabala’s shooting could not match his destructive efforts as he wasted the majority of South Africa’s best shooting chances from open play in the first half, also proving profligate from a brace of free-kicks awarded in promising positions for South Africa.

At the other end Fernandez was coping comfortably with the long-range efforts Egypt were restricted to on their rare forays forward. Wael Gomaa headed narrowly wide from a straight, low trajectory free-kick and Amir Zaki took up some good positions but generally South Africa defended a lot more solidly than they have done for much of the last twelve months, or even prior to that under Stewart Baxter, Bafana’s last full-time coach.

South Africa looked strong in every department apart from going forward, where former skipper Sibusiso Zuma disappointingly proved just as apathetic after the break as he had been in the first half, perhaps still sulking after his team-mates voted to remove the captain’s armband from the Germany-based attacker earlier in the year. A subtle back heel nutmeg to retain possession was the summit of the ambition showed by the blond-haired striker in an uninterested night’s work. Strike partner Katyo Mphela showed more willing but the Racing Strasbourg man frequently needed more time than he had to shape shooting opportunities.

South Africa ultimately failed to make the breakthrough but they genuinely showed signs of the magic that has been lying dormant for so long. A 1-0 defeat to the African Champions is far from a disgraceful final act for Mosimane to bid farewell with either, as he returns to his club football commitments with Super Sport United.

Nonetheless, despite the improvements here and in the victory over Zambia last month, the absence of dynamism in the striking positions leaves the neutral observer convinced that a phone call to Benni McCarthy may well be Carlos Alberto Parreira’s first act as Bafana’s new coach when the Brazilian finally takes up the challenge in January.

Player Ratings

Egypt

Essam Al Hadari: 7
Ahmed Hassan [C]: 7
Wael Gomaa: 8
Ahmed Fathi: 7
Hossam Ghaly: 8
Hosmi Abd Rabou: 7
Sayed Moawad: 6
Mohamed Aboutreka: 7
Ibrahim Saad: 5
Emad Moteab: 7
Amir Zaki: 7

South Africa

Rowen Fernandez: 7
Ricardo Katza: 8
Siphwe Mkhonza: 7
Aaron Mokoena [C]: 7
Nasict Morris: 7
Macbeth Sibaya: 7
Siphwe Shabalala: 7
Elrio van Heerden: 8
Steven Pienar: 8
Sibusiso Zuma: 4
Kattyo Mphela: 5

Please forward all press releases and feature ideas to Barney Cullum on barney@newafricansoccer.co.uk