CAIRO - Although Al-Ahly's technical coach Manuel José was absent from Friday 's training session due to illness, José's assistant coach Pedro held the training session in which team strikers Emad Meteab and Mohamed Naggi 'Geddo' performed well. Saturday, the team finished its preparation for the Gouna game in the 3rd week of the Egyptian Premier League on Sunday at Cairo Stadium at 7:30pm Cairo Local Time (CLT). Last Wednesday José held a meeting with the team's players, explaining the mistakes they had made during Al-Ahly's match against Petrojet and warning them about losing more points in the coming period. Last week Petrojet held Al-Ahly to a 2-2 draw in the second week of the Egyptian Premier League. "José asked the players to concentrate more in future and not repeat the previous mistakes that led to the loss of two precious points against Petrojet," the club official website said. Concerning playmaker Waled Soliman, who was substituted in the Petrojet game, the team's doctor Ihab Ali said the player would need time to recover from his injury before he could play again. "Soliman felt some pain, so we decided to take him off to avoid making his injury worse," Ali said, pointing out that Soliman won't be included in the line-up for the Gouna match. The team's football director Sayyed Abdel-Hafiz said the game against Gouna would be difficult. "Gouna's 4-1 win over Ismaili and draw with Enppi will motivate their players to continue their high performance against us," said Abdel-Hafiz. The Red Devils' manger pointed out that his team was always used to win and fans never excepted anything else. "Al-Ahly always plays for winning and winning only, and this puts pressure on the players," he added. Last week Abdel-Hafiz denied reports claiming that José had sacked goalkeeping coach Ahmed Naggi after the Petrojet 2-2 draw. "These reports are baseless, as Naggi is one of the best goalkeepers coaches in Egypt," Abdel-Hafiz was quoted as saying on the club's official website. According to media reports, José was on a bus after the game and criticised Naggi because of goalkeeper Sherif Ekrami's mistakes, which resulted in the team's draw and losing two valuable points. On Thursday Al-Ahly's board announced their official withdrawal from the 2011-2012 Egyptian Cup due to a commercial dispute with the Egyptian Football Association (EFA), mainly related to marketing rights. El-Gouna coach Anwar Salama, meanwhile, said that his team's game against Al-Ahly Sunday would be difficult. "Al-Ahly players are keen to make up for what happened in the Petrojet game," Salam said. The ex-Ahly coach added that he had warned his players not to be over-confident, particularly after the historic victory over Ismaili 4-1 in the second week of the Premier League. "Our victory over Ismaili and Al-Ahly's draw against Petrojet will make the game more difficult for us," said Amin Orabi, El-Gouna's general coach, warning his players that Al-Ahly would have no choice, but to win. El-Gouna striker Ahmed Hassan 'Drogba' expressed his satisfaction about his team's performance in the two previous League games, hoping that he and his teammates continued their marvelous performance against Al-Ahly. "The game against Ahly will be a chance for us to prove that Gouna will present a distinguished season," Drogba, the ex-Ahly striker, added.
