The Arab Contractors have done it again. Now they've become the first second division team to win the Egyptian Super Cup. Mohamed El-Sayed reports on a club that says nothing is impossible In one of the biggest upsets in the history of Egyptian football, the Arab Contractors, a second division team, thoroughly outplayed the defending league champions Zamalek, beating them 4-2 in the Super Cup. The Contractors, whose initial shocker was beating powerhouse Ahli for the Egyptian Cup in July, have now taken two prize scalps for an unprecedented double. Playing their first game under German coach Draguslav, the star-studded Zamalek line-up, otherwise known as the White House, was expected to inflict severe punishment on the Contractors. However, it was the Contractors, two-time African champions in their heydays in the 1980s, who dominated the game from the start thanks to their physical fitness and daredevil coach, Hassan Shehata, ironically, a Zamalek star midfielder in the 1970s. Shehata had told his players to invade the opposition defences in waves instead of resorting to the defensive approach adopted by most inferior teams when meeting Ahli and Zamalek, Egypt's two best football clubs. The Contractors did as they were told and the result was the Super Cup, which pits the league winner with the winner of the Cup. Were it not for Zamalek's alert keeper Abdel-Wahed El- Sayed, the club would have been humbled even more. Zamalek seemed not to have learned from their arch rivals Ahli and defending Super Cup champions, who were beaten by the Contractors in the final of the Egyptian Cup two months ago. Zamalek players were apparently sure of victory but did nothing to ensure such a scenario. The Contractors took the lead early, in the ninth minute, via Tamer Adel, before Zamalek's Medhat Abdel-Hadi scored the equaliser seven minutes later. Talaat Muharram hit the second for the Contractors in the 22nd minute. But Zamalek pulled themselves back into the game after Abdel-Hadi converted a penalty one minute before half time. Seventeen minutes into the second half, the Contractors' Aiman Zein -- a physician in Qasr Al-Aini Hospital who plays professional football -- regained the lead for his team from a thumping shot delivered from the edge of the area. Eight minutes later, Adel hit his second and his team's fourth goal, sealing the well-deserved victory. Referee Reda El-Beltagui was shaky with his whistle, sending Zamalek's Moataz Inou to the showers for a foul that by most accounts would not have deserved a sending off. He then quickly flashed the red card to the Contractors' Adel in what looked like a lame attempt to correct a mistake. In the first half, El- Beltagui was tricked by Gamal Hamza of Zamalek, who took a dive in the penalty area for an undeserved spot kick. The winners took LE150,000 from the sponsoring company while the losers went home with LE100,000. In his first reaction to the defeat, Zamalek's chairman Kamal Darwish said his players were being fined LE10,000 as punishment for their performance. The defeat will almost certainly effect the coming White House elections scheduled, strangely enough, in November, in time for the real White House vote.
