Local football will take time off as regional and international encounters crowd the calendar The football league will be suspended for two weeks to give the national team time to prepare for the 2006 World Cup qualifier against Benin scheduled for 4 September in Cairo, Inas Mazhar reports. The national league will resume on 15 September. The match is ultimately meaningless for both teams who have been ousted from the qualifiers. Still, Egypt would like to put on a good show, plus it is readying for the African Nations Cup which the country will host in January. Egypt's four representatives in African football club competitions -- Ahli, Zamalek, Ismaili and the Arab Contractors -- will also be busy in their respective tournaments, the Champions League and the Confederation Cup, on 10 and 11 September. In addition, Zamalek, the Border Guards and Enppi will be taking part in the Arab Champions League starting at the beginning of this month. National team head coach Hassan Shehata has selected six European-based players for the Benin game: Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam, Ahmed Hassan, Abdel-Zaher El-Sakka, Amir Azmi, Hossam Ghali and Hosni Abd Rabou. They will join 16 locally-based players. The team's line-up is expected to look more or less like that which took part in the 2-0 loss to Portugal in a friendly in Ponta Delgada two weeks ago. Second half goals from Fernando Meira and Helder Postiga gave Portugal the comfortable win. Both sides gave a mediocre performance in the first half and created scarce chances on goal. Portugal coach Felipe Scolari, who led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup, made a number of substitutions during the break which gave the hosts a surge of energy. Five minutes after restart, Meira put the home side ahead when he buried the ball between the legs of substitute goalkeeper Essam El-Hadari from a Luis Figo corner kick. Postiga squandered a chance to double the lead for Portugal when he picked up a slick pass from Luis Boa Morte before rounding El-Hadari and blasting the ball over the cross bar. Egypt had a penalty claim waved off after Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho handled an Emad Miteb effort inside the area. Postiga made up for his wasted chance when he latched on to a dazzling Joao Alaves through pass to break the offside trap and slot the ball easily past the hapless El-Hadari in the 70th minute. Shehata made a host of substitutions in the second half, all of which proved insufficient as the Pharaohs continued their lacklustre performance. Portugal, Euro 2004 runners-up to champions Greece, lead their 2006 World Cup Group C European qualifier on 20 points, five points ahead of second place Slovakia. They will play against Luxembourg in their next World Cup qualifier on 3 September. "We learn more from a loss than a win," Shehata said at the time. "The encounter was fruitful. We discovered some defensive holes. "Regardless of the result my players played well in front of a great team with talented stars. They weren't afraid." "It's a team that deserves respect," Scolari said of Egypt after the match. "It was a good encounter where I tried some fresh players in front of a tough team." He also lamented the fact that Egypt failed to qualify for the World Cup. Egypt is to meet Argentina in a friendly on 16 November in the inauguration ceremony of a refurbished Cairo Stadium. Before that, against Benin, Egypt will see the return of Mohamed Barakat of Ahli who was injured, but the absence of Beshir El-Tabei and Wael Gomaa for receiving two yellow cards. Hassan Mustafa and Ahmed Eid for injury. Shehata has urged officials, supporters and the media to back the team in prelude to the ANC championship, of which Egypt is a record four- time winner. He said the team "needs to concentrate and get all the support it can." By the end of the second week of the national competition, Ahli and Ismaili held joint lead at the top of the league standings. Both teams won their second matches, against Cement Assiout and Misri, respectively by the same 1-0 result. Each team has the maximum six points. Mohamed Abou Treika, who left the bench for the pitch nine minutes into the second half, saved his team an embarrassing result against a club of much lesser stature. In 14 months Ahli have not lost a single game in national or regional tournaments. But a draw against new arrivals Cement Assiout looked to be the most Ahli could hope for until Abou Treika netted the lone and winning goal from a diving header from close range just one minute after stepping onto the pitch. The shot surged straight to the left of Cement goalkeeper Tarek Suleiman, who had replaced Walid Ibrahim who was shown the red card 35 minutes into the game. Hot on the heels Zamalek now have four points from two matches following a 3-1 victory over Cement Suez. Zamalek's victory was the first for new head coach Farouk Gaafar, the former club star of the 1970s, who took over last week following the surprise dismissal of German Theo Bucker just one match into the season. Following the match, Gaafar said he was satisfied with his team's performance more than the result itself, adding that the victory would help his players regain some self-confidence which had deserted so many of the players following last season's unprecedented fifth place finish. In other games, Cup winners Enppi beat Mehalla 3-0 and the Army downed Koroum 2-0. The two Alexandrian based-teams, Ittihad and the Border Guards were forced to play their head-to-head encounter in Damanhour as Alexandria Stadium undergoes renovation. Ittihad, the much older club, had the support of thousands of fans who travelled almost 70 kilometres to see their club edge the Guards 1-0 and raise their point total to four. The only draw of the week was 0-0 between the Arab Contractors and Aluminium. This week's matches see the Border Guards play Cement Suez, Koroum take on Misri, Ismaili attempt to extend their winning streak against Ittihad, Cement Assiout versus the Army, Mehalla against Ahli, Enppi take on Aluminium and Zamalek meet the Arab Contractors. By Inas Mazhar
