After the unprecedented exodus from major African club championships, Egyptian teams are finding success elsewhere. Mohamed El-Sayed writes on compensation in the Arab world In the wake of the humiliating departure of the top three Egyptian football teams from the first round of Africa's premier club competitions, the Arab Champions League has taken over as the last resort. And the League has turned out to be a saviour as Zamalek and Ismaili have all but secured semi-final places. Saturday witnessed two Egyptian-Saudi clashes of titans in Cairo and Jeddah. Having been dealt an unexpected 2-0 defeat at the hands of Hilal of Saudi Arabia three weeks ago in Riyadh, Zamalek were expected to answer back in Cairo. That did not quite happen. Being the only undefeated team throughout this first-year championship, the Saudi side succeeded in snatching a deserved 1-1 draw in the dying minutes. Hazem Imam scored for the white shirts in the 69th minute before Cisse levelled for the Saudis eight minutes before time. Zamalek's attack proved toothless, their Portuguese head coach Vingada depending only on the 38-year-old striker Hossam Hassan in the attacking line-up. Lacking support from midfielders, Hassan was constantly surrounded with no less than three Saudi defenders and thus could not carry the day. When Vingada wanted to find a solution by introducing attackers Gamal Hamza and Abdel- Halim Ali, he committed another mistake by pulling out the energetic Imam who had been providing his attackers with tantalising passes. Vingada has by coincidence or not substituted Imam at almost the same minute, 60, in almost every match played in the last couple of months. Zamalek's total possession of the ball afterwards proved fruitless. The draw secured for the Saudis first place in Group B and thus a berth in the semi-finals thanks to the seven points they have garnered from three matches. Zamalek, with four points, are also sitting pretty, needing only one point from their last encounter in Cairo with Talaba of Iraq, who have no points, to take second place and qualify for the semis. "Drawing with Hilal is not a bad result," Vingada said after the match. "The most important outcome of this game is that we regained the fighting spirit we had been missing recently. It was the best match we played in a long time." In Group A, Ismaili of Egypt played to a hard- fought 2-2 tie with the wealthiest of Arab clubs, Ittihad Jeddah. Cheered on by more than 10,000 Egyptian expatriates, the Dervishes managed to put an end to a series of defeats in the African, local and Arab championships. Having been dealt a humiliating away 4-0 defeat at the hands of the leaders of the group, Sfax of Tunisia, two weeks ago, the young Dervishes had to at least get a point to keep their qualifying hopes alive. Ismaili's German coach Theo Bucker began the game with two new faces in defence: Sherif Abdel-Fadil and Emad Abdel-Moneim. Goalkeeper Mohamed Sobhi who has been shaky of late, was caught napping when he was scored upon in the 18th minute by Hamza Idris. Hosni Abd-Rabou hit the equaliser when he drove home a penalty kick five minutes after the restart. Mohamed Mohsen Abu-Greisha gave Ismaili the lead seven minutes later. But Sobhi, who made some fine saves, was beaten by a powerful header sent by Reda Tuker 16 minutes after the restart. Although Sobhi, who was awarded the best Egyptian goalkeeper in 2001, was behind Ismaili's last three defeats in the African, Arab and local tournaments, Bucker had no choice but to play him with substitute Mohamed Fathi still suffering from a national league injury. Ismaili were forced to play with 10 men from the 40th minute after Amr Fahim was sent off to an early shower. It was the second red card Fahim -- who is banned from playing in the national league for six months -- received in the championship after he was sent off on the same pitch during the Ahli Jeddah-Ismaili encounter in the first round of this group phase. "I was playing against Ittihad Jeddah and the referee at the same time," Bucker complained. "He was unfair towards my team when he mistakenly produced the red card for Amr Fahim." The yellow shirts (five points) will end up in first place in their group if they can garner six points from their next two home matches against Sfax (five pts) and Ahli Jeddah (five pts). The two latter teams will meet tomorrow in Jeddah. The hopes of the favourites of the group, Ittihad Jeddah (two pts), are fading and it seems all but certain that they will soon pay farewell to the championship.
