THE EGYPTIAN Under-20 football team beat Zimbabwe 5-0 in Harare to land a place in the African Nations Youth Championship taking place in Rwanda in January 2009. Egypt is also preparing for the FIFA World Youth Cup scheduled to be held in Egypt from 25 September to 10 October in 2009. In their away match, the young pharaohs opened the scoring in the first half when Ahmed Hassan netted to give his team a 1-0 lead by half time. Hisham Mohamed, Ahmed Magdi, Mustafa Mahmoud and Islam Ramadan added four goals in the second half. The team is coached by former national team and Ahli captain Rabeea Yassin and is under the overall supervision of Mahmoud El-Gohari, the technical director of the Egyptian Football Association. The race to the finals of the 16th African Youth Championships, Rwanda 2009 got hotter with the first leg matches of the penultimate qualifying rounds billed for this weekend. Twenty-eight teams battled each other for a place in the second round, which will see seven teams joining hosts Rwanda for the finals. Reigning Africa champions Congo began the defence of their title with a dicey home duel against neighbours and rivals DR Congo in Brazzaville which ended 1-1. The Congolese had stunned everyone to win the African title on home soil last year and had to produce a convincing result to prove that their annexing of the title was no fluke. The clash also afforded the Congolese the opportunity to avenge their senior colleagues who were shown the exit by the DR Congo in the newly created African Nation Championship qualifiers. In Banjul, the Scorpions of Gambia faced a Mauritania side who had set their sights high after brushing past highly rated Algeria in one of the shockers of the preliminaries. However, the Gambians managed to beat their guests 1-0. Mauritania beat Algeria 1-0 on aggregate and the Scorpions, an emerging force in youth football, can only underrate them at their own peril. Despite playing host to Mali, Tunisia was beaten at home 1-0 from Mali and neighbours Morocco were beaten 3-0 by Benin in Cotonou as guests of Benin. At the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, the Black Satellites of Ghana thrashed Angola 5-1 when they engaged their Angolan counterparts in a game that coach Sellas Tetteh used to make a claim for the Black Stars job in the not too distant future. Tetteh, drafted onto the Black Stars technical directorship position following the departure of French trainer Claude Le Roy, managed nine out of a possible 12 wins during the first round of the 2010 World Cup/African Cup of Nations qualifiers. The Ghanaian team was led by Andre Ayew, son of African football legend Abedi Pele. It includes five other foreign-based players: Ishmael Yartey (Benefica, Portugal), Daniel Opare (Real Madrid, Spain), Sadick Adams (Athletico Madrid, Spain) and France-based duo Enoch Adu Kofi and Abeiku Quansah. They look poised for a bright start to their campaign. Other results in the qualifications saw Nigeria defeat Senegal 2-0, Kenya scored a 1-0 victory over Sudan and Zambia beat Mauritius 1-0. Cameroon achieved a 1-0 victory over Burundi while Gabon lost to Botswana 2-0. Brukina Faso outclassed Niger 3-0. South Africa and Cote D'Ivoire played to a draw. The South Africans drew 1-1 with Reunion, while the Ivorians drew with the same result with Guinea. In women's football on the continent, Ghana's Black Maidens revived their hopes of qualifying for the first ever FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup with a lone goal victory over the Flamingoes of Nigeria in the African qualifier at the Al-Wak Stadium on Saturday. A last gasp strike by substitute Elizabeth Addo gave the Ghanaians their first win of the campaign, which includes Cameroon. Despite the win, the Ghanaians still occupy the bottom of the group with three points, one adrift of second placed Cameroon with a game in hand. The Flamingoes remain at the top with seven points and still in contention for a slot despite having cleared all their games. Cameroon host Ghana next weekend in the final match of the three-team qualifying group, which will see the top two finishers representing Africa in the World Cup slated for New Zealand later in the year.
