Fielding a much depleted squad, Egypt went down to Uruguay 2-0 in an international friendly in Alexandria played last week on Wednesday Not a single player from league and African champions Ahli were in the line-up, the first time in 32 years an Egyptian team has not had at least one starter from the famed club. Nine Ahli players formed the backbone of the Egyptian team that captured the Africa Cup of Nations six months ago. But last week they were nowhere to be seen. Five were injured while the remaining had arrived on the day of the match from Ghana where Ahli had played to a 0-0 draw against Asante Kotoko in the African Champions group stage. Uruguay, on the other hand, came with all their European- based stars, including goalkeeper Fabian Carini of Inter Milan, Real Madrid players Pablo Garcia and Carlos Diogo and former Manchester United star Diego Forlan. Egypt's second-string players, including Rami Adel, Rida Shehata, Amir Azmi, Sherif Ikrami, Ahmed Abdel-Ghani and Sherif El-Baili, could not mesh with veterans Ahmed Hassan, Abdel-Halim Ali, Amr Zaki and Ahmed Fathi. Egypt had ball advantage for vast stretches of the game and had more scoring opportunities than Uruguay. The difference was Egypt could not capitalise on its chances while the few that came Uruguay's way were converted. In the 67th minute, defender Dario Rodriguez scored a flying header that bounced off the crossbar after meeting Fabian Estoyanoff's corner. The South American team sealed the triumph in the 83rd minute when defender Abdel-Zaher El-Saqqa scored an own goal when he clumsily tried to clear but converted Estoyanoff's low cross into his own net. Despite the defeat, Egypt coach Hassan Shehata said Egypt was the better side and that it was a useful test for his team. The game served as a warm-up before Egypt meets Burundi on 3 September in the first qualifying game for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. Like the World Cup, the defending ACN champions must now play qualifying games. Only the host country qualifies automatically. Shehata added that it was only because of what he called "random mistakes" that Egypt lost the match. Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said Egypt was superior in its fitness but his team won because of their experience. Uruguay failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany after losing to Australia 4-2 on penalties following a 1-1 aggregate tie in an intercontinental playoff. Still, it has a solid history in soccer, being the first winner and host of the World Cup, beating Argentina 4-2 in 1930. It also beat Brazil in front of a packed 200,000 Maracana Stadium in the 1950 World Cup in one of football's biggest ever upsets. It won the Copa America 14 times, a record it shares with Argentina, the first coming in the inaugural tournament in 1916 and the last in 1995. It won the 50th anniversary World Champions tournament that it hosted in 1980. In the latest FIFA world rankings, Uruguay is 14th in the world and Egypt 24th. Uruguay also has two Olympic football gold medals. Concerning the exclusion of Ahmed "Mido" Hossam and Hossam Ghali, who play in AS Roma and Feynoord respectively, Shehata said they needed time to prove themselves with their new teams since they are still unsettled. The friendly was Egypt's second game and second defeat after the Africa Cup of Nations victory. It lost to Spain 2-0 in Spain shortly before the World Cup began. The Egyptian federation paid 100,000 euros to play against Uruguay.
