Egypt's football team starts its campaign to defend its Africa Cup of Nations title with a match against Sierra Leone in Cairo on 5 September. Inas Mazhar reports that despite the apparent weakness of the opposition, the Egyptians are taking the game seriously In preparation for the African qualifications, the Pharaohs started their training camp on Monday with a practice session at the Military Stadium in Cairo. The Egyptian warm-up is to prepare for their first match against Sierra Leone in Cairo on 5 September. Egypt plays in the same group with South Africa and Niger. The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations will be the 28th edition of the tournament. It will be co- hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The winner of this tournament will qualify for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. While Niger and Sierra Leone should be easy prey, Egypt is not expected to drop its guard, especially against South Africa which gained valuable experience from its World Cup performances in the summer. Though Egypt is the defending champion, having won the last three African cups and a record seven overall, the country must still enter qualifiers. Head coach of Egypt Hassan Shehata named 22 players for the match: Goalkeepers Essam El-Hadari, Abdel-Wahed El-Sayed, Mohamed Sobhi Defenders Wa'el Gomaa, Mahmoud Fathalla, El-Motasem Salem, Mohamed Neguib, Ahmed El-Mohammadi, Sherif Abdel-Fadil, Sayed Moawad, Mohamed Abdel-Shafei Midfielders Ahmed Hassan, Hossam Ghali, Ahmed Fathi, Amr El-Solia, Ahmed Khairi, Mohamed Abu Treika Forwards Walid Suleiman, Mohamed "Gedo" Nagi, Ahmed Abdel-Zaher, Ahmed Ali, Ahmed Hassan Meki Zamalek's Mahmoud Abdel-Razek or Shikabala was left out due to injury. Amr Zaki did not make the team for lack of fitness, according to the national team assistant coach Shawki Gharieb. "Following the performances of all our players, the technical staff agreed that Zaki is not physically fit enough to join the national team at the moment. However, we hope he returns to his peak form soon," Gharieb said. The team also drops forward Ahmed Eid Abdel-Malek of Haras Al-Hedoud for misconduct. "He continues argues with the referees and was suspended four matches," Gharieb said. The head coach spoke to him several times and asked him to follow his instructions. But since it isn't the first time, we have decided to sideline him for some time. He needs to keep his composure. The assistant coach said that the African champions are determined to win this first game against Sierra Leone at the beginning of their campaign. "We have learned that the first match is the most important. If you win the first match, you gain confidence and it makes you comfortable the rest of the way. We will never forget when we drew with Zambia in the beginning of our campaign in the World Cup qualifiers. We lost the race after that." Gharieb was referring to the 2010 World Cup qualifiers in which Egypt was placed in a relatively easy group with Algeria, Rwanda and Zambia. But an opening home draw with Zambia forced Egypt to play catch-up the rest of the way with Algeria which eventually prevailed and went to South Africa. "We do not have much information about the opponents (Sierra Leone) except their result from a friendly match against the U20 Gambia team and what we received from our Egyptian embassy there. That's why we are taking this game seriously. Actually, we are going to take all the teams seriously. Our target is to win all our games without having to look at or depend on the results of the other teams," Gharieb added. Meanwhile, the head coach of the Olympic team, former superstar Hani Ramzi named 32 players for the friendly against Egyptian league leaders Ismaili on 4 September. The Olympic team is preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games qualifications.
