CAIRO: Ismaili coach Ricardo Ferreira believes that the empty seats at Ismailia stadium had a positive impact on his team, in the wake of the 2-0 league win over Harras Hodoud. The Dervishes are serving a stadium ban by the Egyptian FA after last month s incidents in the match against Ahly. Nonetheless, they saw off the in-form cup champions at home on Saturday. All players had a good game and were fully focused because there was no pressure from fans, Brazilian tactician Ricardo said after the game. When the fans are present, players feel the pressure; especially that Ismaili is a great club with a huge fan base. Ismaili supporters impatient attitude was widely criticized throughout this season, which saw the team losing three times at home, out of a total of five defeats so far. Ricardo was satisfied with the performance of his winter signings including debutant Abdul-Hamid Sami, who replaced the unsettled Ibrahim Saied in defense. Sami, who signed from Dakhlia in January, had a superb debut as Ismaili clinched their first home clean sheet this season. I am very pleased with new players like Dario Khan, John Jambo and Abdul-Hamid Sami, who played his first game with us, Ricardo added. Sami was excellent; I think it is the first time to we see our defense well-organized like that.
