ALEXANDRIA: More than 80,000 fans gathered in the Egyptian army stadium in Borg El-Arab Thursday to attend the opening ceremony of the U-20 World Cup tournament which culminated in a 4-1 home team victory over rivals Trinidad & Tobago.
The opening ceremony was short but dazzling, with firework displays and laser shows paying tribute to the cultures of the 24 participating teams accompanied by a performance by singer Amr Mostafa.
Before the ceremony, Hani Abu Rida, head of the organizing committee gave a short speech followed by another by Hassan Saqr, head of the national sports council. FIFA chief Joseph Blatter was, however, was unable to complete his speech when fans began cheering before President Hosni Mubarak signaled the start of the ceremony.
A hot air balloon centered the football pitch encircled by eight screens with scenes expressing the culture and football history of the six continents as well as the flags of the participating teams.
I am happy and proud to see this wonderful stadium and the enthusiasm of people coming to the stadium. This should be an incentive for the men s senior team to qualify for the World Cup, Blatter said in a press conference before the game.
The U-20 world cup is technically high and requires high organization; your success in organizing this tournament is proof that Egypt can host the World Cup in the future, he added.
Egypt’s under-20 team clinched its first three points in the tournament after beating Trinidad & Tobago. Mostafa “Afroto Mahmoud and Mohamed Talaat scored one each, while Hossam Arafat put in the other two goals for Egypt. Trinidad & Tobago’s single goal was shot by John Rochford.
The local team had a shaky start as the players seemed nervous. Pressured by the fans, they missed several passes.
This is the first time for them to play in such an atmosphere and I am proud of them that they could handle the situation and win, Miroslav Soukop, the team s coach, said after the game.
The Egyptian team started to pressure the Soca Warriors in their zone through shots by Afroto and Mohamed Talaat and almost scored twice until Afroto got a ball from midfield and dribbled through Trinidad s defense to put the ball in the back of the net in the 30th minute.
Following the goal, Glenroy Samuel made a brilliant save to keep Talaat s header away. But then Trinidad s Rochford took advantage of a series of defense errors, found himself in front of the Egyptian goal keeper to bury it home only five minutes later.
Following their first and only goal, the guests fell back to defense until the referee blew the first half whistle.
In the second half, Trinidad & Tobago continued its defensive tactics, but Hossam Arafat managed to use a deflected ball from a corner kick to shoot it from a distance, scoring Egypt s second goal.
The guests then started to play more physically, gradually taking control of the game despite some desperate solo attempts by Talaat, who almost scored in the 13th minute after snatching a ball from midfield but failed to deliver until the 14th minute when he put in Egypt s third in the follow-up of a deflected shot.
Luck was not on Trinidad & Tobago’s side as the ball hit the bar twice and goalkeeper Lotfi made some brilliant saves from Khaleem Hyland s attempts.
In a series of defense errors, Egypt kept the ball for too long, risking its loss too close to the goal as Trinidad continued to play aggressively.
Soukop started to make substitutions by taking out Afroto and fielding Mostafa Galal.
Egypt then restored its grip on the match but wasted a couple of chances from counter attacks. However in the 41st minute striker, Juma Clarence managed to dribble through defense only to find his shot hitting the post.
In the extra time, following two Egyptian substitutions with Bogy and Saad El Din Saad in and Talaat and Ahmed Magdy out, Hossam Arafat managed to put in Egypt’s fourth goal from a counter attack.
