A red letter day

It was expected to be a day of long names and foreign salutary cheers, but the expected turned to dust, and the spirit of Egypt, instead, saturated the air. Alaa Shahine reports on how Ahli's lone bullet was enough for Egypt's Red Devils to prevail
Last Saturday, Real Madrid's team paid a visit to the Pyramids, marvelling at the King's chamber in the Pyramid Khofo. They were relaxed, enthusiastic; a group of players without a seeming concern on their minds.
A few hours later, though, that spirit had changed; an outstanding performance from Ahli's players worked wonders, handing the star-studded Spanish team a shocking 1-0 defeat in the friendly encounter that took place in front of a sold-out Cairo Stadium.
It was a result that even the most optimistic Ahli fan could not have fathomed given that all the pre-match speculations centred around the numbers of goals that Real would score in Ahli's net. The major upset was behind a lone strike by the team's Nigerian import Ibrahim Sunday following a perfect counter-attack by Khaled Bibo. The inspired midfielder took a solo run into the heart of the area, danced past Real's goalie, Cesar, and sent Sunday clear to nod the ball home, brining some 67,000 fans to their feet.
Real's visit to Egypt came upon an invitation from Ahli's management to take part in the club's ceremonies after being selected as Africa's Club of the Century by the African Football Confederation (CAF). According to the agreement, the Spanish team garnered a sizable $1.5 million for coming to Cairo with their full power of football super stars -- that includes FIFA's Player of the Year Zineddin Zidane, Portugal's idol Luis Figo, Spain's wonder boy Raul Gonzales and Brazil's Roberto Carlos.
"It is a prestigious match and I am happy to be here," world record-signing Zidane said in a press conference shortly after the private jet carrying the Spanish team arrived at Cairo International Airport. The guests then headed to one of Cairo's five-star hotels where they spent the night before spending few hours on the match's day in site seeing.
Several hours before the match, thousands of fans were jamming the streets leading to Cairo Stadium with red banners (Ahli's colour) seen everywhere.
"We know it is almost impossible to defeat Real Madrid," cried Mustafa Fawzi, a British-Egyptian Ahli fan. "But we came to enjoy the event and I came to watch Steve MecManaman," he added referring to Real's English star.
Official ceremonies started three hours before the match by honouring Ahli's skippers between the 1940s and 1960s. On the pitch stood people who contributed in the making of Ahli's legend like Mustafa Kamel Mansour, Egypt's keeper in 1934 World Cup in Italy, Adel Heikal, Rifaat El-Fanagili, Mimi El-Sherbini and Taha Ismail. Spectators then enjoyed a 30-minute match between Ahli's stars in the 1970s and the 1980s including Egypt's all-time football legend Mahmoud El-Khatib (Bibo) along with other marvels like Taher Abu Zeid, Ekrami, Magdi Abdel- Ghani and Alaa Mayhoub.
The stadium's main stand was no less star- studded. At the top of the festival's list of honorary guest were Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Oil Minister Sameh Fahmi, Youth Minister Alieddin Hilal, President of the Egyptian Olympic Committee Mounir Thabit and President of the Egyptian Football Association Youssef El-Dahshouri.
At 9.00pm sharp, both teams' players walked into the field accompanied by referee Gamal El-Ghandour, and the show began. Following 20 minutes of lacklustre performance, Roberto Carlos brought the best out of Ahli's goalie Essam El-Hadari with a spectacular mid-range shot that was deflected to Real's skipper Fernando Hierro whose follow-up went over the bar. Four minutes later, Zidane had the goal wide open following Savio's pinpoint cross but failed to score.
Real dominated the first half in terms of territory and chances created amidst efforts by Bibo and Alaa Ibrahim that regularly punctuated the Spanish dominance. With the match 38 minutes old, Ahli's supporters hold their breaths when Carlos unleashed an unstoppable shot into the post in Real's closest first-half opportunity.
Ahli's performance improved as the half went on, with Bibo receiving Ibrahim's perfect pass and firing a half-volley shot over the bar, and they continued to force their rhythm after the break. The second half brought good news to Ahli. Six minutes into the kick off, Bibo took advantage of a sloppy Real defence to make a solo run into the heart of the area, beat Real's keeper before sending substitute Sunday with nothing but an empty net to score in, putting Ahli ahead against all the odds.
The hosts continue to run the show amidst the amazement of their own supporters. Ibrahim took advantage of another massive defensive blunder by Hierro and found himself alone with goal only to be foiled by Cesar. Bibo was close to add his name to the score sheet when he received Hadi Khashaba's excellent pass and found himself in a one-on- one confrontation with Cesar but his lob hit the crossbar denying Ahli a second goal.
Real's first dangerous scoring opportunity came through Zidane who smashed a powerful midrange shot miraculously tipped away by El-Hadari back to MecManaman whose shot went to the stands.
Junior sensation Wael Ryad seemed certain to score in the 75th minute following a clever give-and-go breakthrough with Bibo only for Cesar to save the teenager's close effort. It was Real's first defeat in the preseason ahead of their first official challenge against Real Socidad in the Spanish Super Cup this month.
"I am glad that we made Ahli's supporters happy," Ahli's Portuguese coach Manuel Jose told reporters after the match. "We were very good and wasted many scoring chances," he continued. "That is exactly what I told the players about before the match. Real is the best side in the world and they have outstanding players, but they can still lose matches."
Not all coaches that day were quite so happy, though. Real's coach Vicente Del Bosque, however, had his excuses ready.
"Both teams played a good match but we could not perform in such a hot weather, let alone bad pitch conditions," he said. "Ahli could have won by a bigger margin had they took advantage of their scoring chances. We played with our full power but you have to remember that it is just a friendly encounter. Moreover, the players were underestimating Ahli before the match and were surprised by the team's performance."
The Spanish media were no less surprised by Ahli's performance.
"Before I came to Egypt, I knew nothing about Ahli," Carmen Colino, from Spanish AS daily newspaper told Al-Ahram Weekly. "But after the match I wrote that Ahli's good performance surprised Real who were affected by the hot weather," she added.
It wasn't just Egypt and Spain applauding the victory, but the rest of the world pitched in their cheers too.
"The Spanish giants looked tired an unprepared for the motivated hosts in a game billed as 'Africa vs Europe' on the stadium scoreboard," wrote Europe's prestigious football Web site onefootball.com which also added that Zidane looked again "Completely lost, while his team mates showed little of the kind of football that saw Real take their 28th league title last season."
British Broadcasting Corporation BBC said, on the other hand, that the match ended with a result "That not even the most ardent Ahli fan could have predicted." That, for sure, is correct.
The problem for the Ahli team now, stand in the form of celebration. Or lack of, to be exact. No time to party and no time to rest; the team will be heading to Luanda to face Angolan champions Pietro Atlitco in the African Champions League semifinals.
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