CAIRO - This year, Egyptians have bagged acollection of trophies in sports such as soccer, squash, volleyball and basketball. In early 2010, the Egyptian national soccer team secured a record seventh African Cup of Nations (ACN) title, beating Ghana 1-0 in a tense final in Angola in January. Veteran Mohamed Nagui 'Gedo' finished the tournament as the top scorer, as Egypt became the first team to win three successive ACN titles. The final will not go down as a classic, but it proved to be a tight and absorbing affair in Luanda. Ghana set out from the start to execute a well-organised game plan of crowding out the Egyptians in midfield and defence, while looking to feed their front men quickly. Centre-half Isaac Vorsah in particular looked very authoritative at the back for Ghana. But Egypt remained organised and solid, as they did throughout the tournament, and succeeded in cutting out many of Ghana's attacks. The Black Stars shone brightly to start with and had promising spells throughout, with striker Asamoah Gyan having the majority of their best chances. Gyan's early free kick hit the Egyptian wall and, from the resulting corner, the ball fell back to the striker, who attempted an ambitious overhead kick, which sailed over Essam el-Hadari's goal. After a tight first half, which yielded little in terms of clear shots on goal, Ghana began to impose themselves on a cautious Egypt side. In the 73rd minute, a long and patient build-up from the Black Stars almost produced an opener when Gyan rounded it off by curling a beautiful shot just over the bar. The winner made Gedo the top marksman in the tournament with five goals, all of them coming as a substitute. It was also his sixth goal in only eight appearances for Egypt. Egypt held on for their record seventh title and their team and fans celebrated wildly at the final whistle, as the Pharoahs confirmed their status as kings of the Nations Cup tournament. The win also gave Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata a history-making third championship and extended Egypt's unbeaten record in the competition to an astonishing 19 games. Meanwhile, Egypt's captain Ahmed Hassan was named the ACN's best player, while Egypt's goalie el-Hadari was named the best shot-stopper in the competition for the third time in a row. Hassan and el-Hadari became the only players to win the continental tournament four times, while combative midfielder Ahmed Fathi won the ACN fair-play award. As a result of their success, Egypt sensationally moved up to ninth place in this month's FIFA rankings, for the first time ever. Sports critics commented after the game that Egypt were the best team of the tournament and deserved to win. Ghana, however, were probably the better team in the final, but never made the most of their possession and paid the price when Gedo came off the bench with 20 minutes to go. In related news, Pharaohs drew with Sierra Leone 1-1 in Cairo last September in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, before being beaten by Niger 1-0 away last October. The winners of the 11 groups and the best two runners-up will reach the next ACN in 2012, which will be held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Omneya retains Hurghada Crown Egyptian Omneya Abdel-Qawi celebrated her seventh successive appearance in the final of the Women's Hurghada International by winning the $26,200 WISPA World Tour squash title for the fourth time in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada last May. Top seed Abdel-Qawi faced third-seed compatriot Engi Kheirallah on the all-glass court, sited on the Promenade, in the first all-Egyptian final in the event's nine-year history. Remarkably, despite being ranked ahead of her Egyptian teammate throughout her career, Abdel-Qawi had lost to Kheirallah in all their previous five Tour meetings since September 2005. Ashour clinches Kuwait Open title The world's number one men's squash player Rami Ashour beat his fellow countryman Amr Shabana 3-1 (9-11, 11-4, 13-11, 11-1) to clinch the Kuwait Open title last month, for the second time of his career. Shabana, the four-time World champion, made a good start, but Ashour turned on his master class to come back from behind and win three sets in a row to claim his second Kuwait Open title. The game began to go one way, as Ashour started to dominate. He was even leading 10-0 in the last set before giving a way a point to Shabana, before smashing the winner to give him a crushing 11-1 victory. Ashour, 23, has extended his lead at the top of the PSA rankings, consoling himself after losing the El-Gouna Open last October against Karim Darwish, because of injury. Darwish wins Qatar Classic Egypt's Karim Darwish won the Qatar Classic by upsetting his compatriot, second-seed Amr Shabana, in the final last month. Darwish managed two upsets in a row, first coming from two games down to defeat the tournament's number one seed, England's Nick Matthew, in the semi-final 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8, in 73 minutes. In the finals, he pulled the same trick, as Darwish came from behind again to win in the final over Shabana in four games, 8-11, 11-2, 11-7, 11-6, in 53 minutes. The first game was a start and stop affair, which lasted a gruelling 21 minutes. Although Shabana appeared to get frustrated at not having several decisions go his way, in the end he managed to come away with the game. The effort in the first game must have taken a lot out of Shabana as Darwish walked away with the second game in under five minutes, setting up a crucial third game. After an error-filled third game, Shabana had lost momentum and from there Darwish had to simply lean on his opponent. He eventually came away with the win after Shabana had already seemed mentally defeated. "We know each other's game so well," Darwish said after the match. "We both take the ball so early and there were some accidents as we were going for the ball. But it was a fair game, a clean game. I only had two bad decisions at the start of the match. I lost some concentration there, but after that it was fine." Egypt's basketball on the right track Egypt's Under-18 basketball team stole the limelight when they won the African Men's basketball championship, beating Tunisia in the final last October in Rwanda. The two finalists – Egypt and Tunisia – will represent Africa at the Under-18 World Cup slated for 2011 in Estonia. Egypt had qualified for the final after beating Mozambique 82-40; they also defeated Algeria 87-66 in the quarters. The young Pharaohs won this trophy after a lot of hard work. Mali won the Bronze Medal in this tourney after outrivalling Mozambique 72-56 in the match for the third and fourth places. The fifth place went to the Gabon and Algeria came eighth. Mali's Salif Traore was named the tournament's best rebounder, Egypt's Ahmed Ali Mohamed best player and Rwanda's Lionel Hakizimana best scorer, while Mozambique won the fair-play trophy. Egypt's coach Zaher Abdel-Baset, who helped the young national team win the African title, was full of praise for them, as they won nearly all their matches, beating Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire and Angola. The team camped in Alexandria, then flew to Tunisia for another camp to enter the race for the African championship. In another camp in Turkey, before the one in Alex, the Pharaohs played seven friendlies and won four. The team, who are optimistic about Estonia next year, include Hatem el-Beheiri, Ahmed Hamdi, Ali Ahmed, Ahmed Moheib, Mohamed Moataz, Wael Shousha, Assem Ahmed, Omar Abbas, Marwan Sobhi, Marwan Sarhan and Ahmed Gamal. Egypt's trainer Tareq Khairi says that the Egyptian Basketball Association (EBA) are doing everything to support the team, offering them all the facilities they need. Abdel-Basset, a pioneering figure in local basketball, started coaching the national junior team after coaching some Arab countries. He is vastly experienced. The Al-Ittihad team ex-basketballer started his career in coaching in 1990, when he took charge of his club. He performed brilliantly with the Under-18 side for three years and then took the helm of Al-Shaab club in the Emirates, where he stayed till 2000. Ahly enter the record books Egyptian side Al-Ahly added another trophy to their cabinet after they clinched the 28th Men's Arab Club Volleyball Championship, following a 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-16) victory over Hilal of Saudi Arabia in a thrilling final at the Cairo Stadium complex last April. It was the sixth title for the Egyptian champions, a record for the competition, adding to their eight African Club Champions Cups, another continental record. Negma of Bahrain won the Bronze Medal following their victory over Ahly Tripoli of Libya in an exciting five-set match, winning 3-2 (17-25, 25-22, 16-25, 25-21, 18-16). Kazma of Kuwait finished fifth, defeating Qatar Club of Qatar 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-21). Seventh place went to Police of Qatar, who beat Ahly Beni Ghazi of Libya 3-2 (25-21, 25-22, 22-25, 16-25, 15-8). Egypt's Ahly are participating in the FIVB Club World Championships, which began in Doha on December 15 and ends today. EPL coaches sacked In the Egyptian Premier League (EPL),many coaches have been sacked for performing badly. Several bailed out, only one match into the season. The mighty Ahly are stumbling in the local league, as a result of which their coach Hossam el-Badri was sacked last month. Meanwhile, Arab Contractors coach Mohamed Amer was surprisingly fired after his team suffered an embarrassing 4-1 defeat at the hands of top-flight debutants Wadi Degla in their Egyptian Premier League opener. The club fired Amer despite keeping faith in him before the start of the season, when speculation was rife that he would leave. Contractors had considered dismissing Amer after the team survived relegation on the final day of the last season. However, they kept him, although he wasn't destined to last long. Amer was the second Egyptian coach to leave his team after they were outplayed by Wadi Degta after just one league game. Meanwhile, Mohssen Saleh resigned as coach of the newly promoted side Semouha, following their 1-0 loss to Military Production, also in the first match of the league season. Semouha accepted the resignation of Saleh without hesitation. Prior to that, he had expressed his desire to leave several times, but the club wanted to keep him. Saleh, who guided Ismaili to their last Egyptian league triumph in 2002 before taking charge of Egypt in the 2004 African Cup of Nations, had been the boss at Semouha for some months. Reports said that he opted to depart from the Alexandria-based club to work as a television pundit. Frenchman Patrice Neveu swiftly replaced Saleh as Semouha's coach, but he is about to be sacked because of the outfit's bad results. Neveu is no stranger to Egyptian football, having managed Ismaili for six months in 2007. Neveu, 56, recently left DR Congo after two years at their helm. The next victim was Ismail Youssef, who stepped down from his role as Gouna coach, shortly after the coastal side lost 2-0 at home to prompted outfit Wadi Degla. The former Zamalek stalwart handed his resignation to Gouna, ending his contract by mutual consent. The coach, who had battled hard with the team, met with the club's board members and told them that he wanted to leave. Gouna were promoted to the Egyptian Premier League for the first time in the summer of 2009, but have barely lived up to expectations ever since. Anwar Salama, who left Al-Ittihad of Libya, replaced Youssef. Spain clinch 1st World Cup Spain won their first World Cup title by defeating The Netherlands 1-0 in the final last July in South Africa. For Spain, the road to the title wasn't paved with gold, as many expected. They lost their first game, against Switzerland, 1-0, but then marched through the knockout round with four straight 1-0 victories. In all of those games, Spain waited until the second half to break the deadlock. Iniesta scored in the 116th minute, the latest a winner has been scored in the history of the tournament. The Netherlands were booked nine times, including a red card for Heitinga seven minutes before Iniesta's goal. The Netherlands tried to stunt the Spanish attack by fouling, again and again and again, and almost succeeded in snatching a win on multiple occasions. But bad luck and some nervous finishing helped hand the Dutch their first loss since the autumn of 2008. In three World Cup finals, The Netherlands have lost three times – in two of them, in extra time. Spain bungled their share of chances too. But they finally put the ball in the net with penalty kicks looming around the corner. The goal began with Torres on the left wing. The striker lobbed the ball towards Iniesta in the box, but it was under-hit and Van der Vaart headed it away. However, the ball fell right to Fabregas at the top of the box. The midfielder, who was active after coming on as a sub in the 87th minute, passed to Iniesta. Van der Vaart couldn't get back to the midfielder in time, and Iniesta volleyed past Stekelenberg, who had been playing brilliantly but only managed to get his hand on the ball as it sailed past him and into the Spanish soccer history books. Qatar to host World Cup Qataris waved red and white flags and blew vuvuzelas to celebrate their country's successful bid to organise the 2022 World Cup this month. As soon as the winner was announced, the party began across Qatar.. Vuvuzelas horns were back at full blast after their world debut at the South African World Cup. Qatar is the first Arab country in the history of the competition to win the right to organise the cup. With a population of 1.6 million, it beat the competition of mighty nations like the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Sheikh Mohammed Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, son of the current ruler of Qatar and chairman of Qatar's bid to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup, spoke after the announcement by FIFA President Joseph Blatter. He stressed that his country was totally committed to the event. Scorching summertime temperatures were the main concern about the Qatari bid. The Emir said that all 12 stadiums would be climate-controlled and zero-carbon emitting, and that they would be modular in design, so that they can be dismantled and taken to countries with poor football infrastructure. Independent from the United Kingdom since 1971, Qatar is a major oil producer, as well as the third largest exporter of gas in the world. The Gulf emirate does not have a long football tradition, but thanks to oil revenues, its population is one of the richest in the world. It has also attracted important football players like Gabriel Batistuta and Frank de Boer towards the end of their careers. Qatar plans to spend US$3 billion to renovate three stadiums and build nine new ones, with the 12 venues divided among seven host cities within a 60km radius. Fans will thus be able to see two matches a day, Sheikh al-Thani said. Six stadiums will be located in the capital Doha: one each in Al-Shamal, Al-Kohr, Lusail, Umm Salal, Al-Rayann and Al-Wakhrar. The smallest will hold 43,000 people; the largest in Lusail will seat more than 80,000. A total of 2.869 million spectators are expected. The 2021 Confederations Cup and the 2022 World Cup will have an operational budget of US$645 million, but the final bill for all the infrastructures might reach US$100 billion. The royal family is willing to come up with the money to build a transportation network, training venues for national teams and hotels, in order to increase drastically the capacity of the hospitality industry.
