Pharaohs name strong squad for Warriors

By The NewsDay | Mar. 18, 2013 | 3 Min read

WHILE national senior men’s team coach Klaus Pagels has named a virtually developmental side for the 2014 Brazil World Cup football match against Egypt next week, his opponent Bob Bradley has named a very experienced squad for the encounter.

REPORT BY HENRY MHARA

The two teams clash in Alexandra on Tuesday next week, in a match the Warriors just have to win to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the world’s premier event.

Whereas Pagels decided to snub experienced players such as Willard Katsande and Vusa Nyoni and opted for raw talent in the form of Nicholas Guyo, Silas Songani and Ronald Chitiyo, Bradley has announced a strong 25-men squad led by the ageless and hugely talented Mohamed Abou-Treika.

The Pharaohs list has nine foreign-based players, including Basel duo Mohamed Salah and Mohamed El-Neny and Hull City’s in-form striker Mohamed “Gedo” Nagy.

Only two new faces have been included into the Egyptian squad, the Zamalek duo of 27-year old towering striker Ahmed Gaafar and central midfielder Nou El-Sayed.

The duo’s inclusion adds up to 10 the total number of Zamalek players that has been called up for the Warriors match, the highest in the squad.

However, there was no place in the squad for the colourful striker Mohammed Zidan and the eccentric goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary.

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The seven-time African champions look well poised to finish on top of Group G and qualify for the final round after they secured maximum six points in their opening two qualifiers.

Zimbabwe are on third position on the four team log table with a single point, the same number as basement Mozambique while Guinea is second on three. Only the log leaders qualify to the next round of qualifiers.

Critics says the German national is predetermined in his selection of players as he has insisted on calling players that are not playing regular football at their clubs, overlooking those that are playing frequently.

Rodreck Mutuma has not seen any action since moving to Absa Premiership side Bloemfontein Celtic, Knowledge Musona is failing to break into Augsburg’s final 18 and so is Warriors Denver Mukamba who has played once for his new club Wits University, coming in as a 58th minute substitute since his well publicized move to South Africa, but they still made it into the final 18 member squad.

But the biggest shock was the selection of Tafadzwa Rusike who has replaced the injured Mathew Rusike into the squad.

In a week when his Ajax Cape Town coach was complaining about the terrible form of Tafadzwa and omitting him on his final squad for a league match, Pagels felt the former Caps United winger was still good enough for the Warriors. Ovidy Karuru was only drafted into the travelling squad last week.

The Warriors team is expected to assemble in Cairo on Friday morning before proceeding to the match venue in Alexandra, 180km from the capital.

Pagels and his assistants Lloyd Mutasa and Nkululeko Dlamini are expected to travel back to Cairo the following day where they would watch their opponents play Swaziland in an international friendly. Egypt squad: Goalkeepers; Abdel-Wahed El-Sayed, Ahmed El-Shennawy (Zamalek, Egypt), Sherif Ekramy (Ahly, Egypt) Defenders; Wael Gomaa, Mohamed Naguib, Ahmed Shedid (Ahly, Egypt), Mahmoud Fathallah, Omar Gaber, Mohamed Abdel-Shafy (Zamalek, Egypt), Adam El-Abd (Brighton, England), Ahmed Saied Okaa (Lierse, Belgium), Ahmed Fathi, Ahmed Elmohamady (Hull City, England). Midfielders; Ibrahim Salah, Mohamed Ibrahim, Ahmed Eid, Nour El-Sayed (Zamalek, Egypt), Hossam Ashour, Abdallah El-Said (Ahly, Egypt), Hosni Abd-Rabou (Al-Nasr, Saudi Arabia), Mohamed Salah, Mohamed El-Neny (Basel, Switzerland), Amr El-Sulaya (Ismaily, Egypt), Mohamed Abou-Treika (Bani Yas, UAE), Ahmed Hammoudi (Smouha, Egypt). Forwards; Mohamed Nagy ‘Gedo’ (Hull City, England), Ahmed Gaafar (Zamalek, Egypt), Ahmed Hassan Mekki (Haras El-Hodoud, Egypt), Ahmed Temsah (Dhofar, Oman).