International Football
AMUNEKE AIMS AT BUILDING CONFIDENCE IN EGYPTIAN CLUB, MAQASSA
Maqassa of Egypt’s new Nigerian coach, Emmanuel Amunike says he has big ambitions to achieve with the Egyptian Premier League club, insisting that his players only need some confidence to return back to winning ways.
According to Egyptian publication, Ahram, Amuneke said:
“I agreed a one-and-a-half-year contract with Maqassa to build a strong team with young players in the coming period,” Amuneke said in an interview with Al-Ahram Al-Riyadi magazine published on Wednesday.
Earlier in February, struggling side Maqassa named Zamalek’s great and former African player of the year Amunike as their new coach, replacing ex-Egypt striker Mido who was shown the door after a string of poor results saw the team drop to fourth from bottom in the league table.
“The team includes good players who only lack confidence in their abilities. I told them they need to be determined to win again to restore their confidence in themselves,” Amuneke said.
In the first match under the 49-year-old’s guidance, Maqassa played out a 1-1 draw with El-Entag El-Harby on Saturday.
Maqassa currently lie third from bottom with 14 points from 17 matches, one behind the safety zone, but Amuneke is optimistic about his team chances of staying in the top flight.
“The team is in a very difficult situation, but our players can pass it. I know the teams’ circumstances well and my mission is to find solutions to quickly restore the balance,” he added.
“I told the players that changing their positions on the field in every game has been the main reason for the poor results.”
Happy with Egypt return
Returning to the country where he made his name as a deadly forward in the early 1990s, Amuneke expressed his great delight, welcoming the idea of taking charge of Cairo giants Zamalek one day.
He joined Zamalek from Nigeria’s Julius Berger in 1991 and went on to win two domestic league titles and one African Champions League crown in a glorious three-year spell with the club.
Amuneke also played for Portugal’s Sporting, Spanish giants Barcelona and Albacete before ending his career at Jordanian club Al-Wehdat in 2004.
“Egypt is my second country, where I had beautiful memories for three years and I am happy with the warm welcome everywhere,” he said.
“Working at Zamalek is a hope for any coach as it isa big club, but I am happy at Maqassa and I am working hard to achieve my ambitions there.
“Returning back to winning ways and also to become among the top four is my priority and then I can think of any other steps.”
On the international level, Amuneke was part of Nigeria’s golden generation that won the Nations Cup in 1994 and reached the last 16 of the World Cup several months later. He was named Africa’s best player in the same year before leading the U-23 side to the Olympic gold medal in 1996.
Amuneke had mixed fortunes in his brief managerial tenure, however. He guided Nigeria’s U-17 side to World Cup glory in 2015 but had unsuccessful spells with Julius Berger and Ocean Boys in his home country as well as Sudan’s Al Khartoum SC.
He then took charge of the Tanzanian national team but they bowed out of last year’s Nations Cup at the group stage after losing all their three game
A clash of kit colours caused confusion for players and made it difficult for fans watching on TV to tell the teams apart as World Cup co-hosts, the U.S., were accused of being responsible for a mix-up in a 5-2 friendly defeat by Belgium on Saturday.
Both teams used the match to launch the new kit they will wear at the June 11 to July 19 World Cup, which is also being held in Canada and Mexico.
The U.S. sported a design that pulls directly from the red and white stripes in the American flag, while Belgium wore their away kit, which was light blue with pink accents.
“Sometimes you had to look twice, especially if you wanted to play quickly,” Belgian winger Jeremy Doku told his national television afterwards. “I would have preferred clearer colours.”
American captain Christian Pulisic said it was difficult to deal with.
“A lot of times you get the ball, and you look up, you can’t really lock in on something. You can only base it on the colour of the shirt. That’s how it works,” he told reporters. “And when it’s very similar, it’s difficult.”
Belgian television apologised to viewers after the match, with analyst and former Belgian international Marc Degryse criticising organisers.
“Football is a product that needs to be sold. Everything always has to be better and better, yet they still managed to make the match annoying with the jerseys,” he said.
“This goes completely against the whole commercial aspect. This is really unacceptable.”
US Soccer said pictures of both jerseys were sent to match referees before the match, and at no time did they indicate they felt there was a conflict.
Belgian media said on Sunday the fault lay with the hosts, who insisted on playing in their new red and white jerseys, which clashed with both Belgium’s first-choice red strip and also the lighter away kit.
Both countries wanted to unveil their new jerseys for the first time, but after becoming aware of the situation, Belgium proposed to play in their traditional red, the reports said.
However, that was not an option because the U.S. shirt also contains a lot of red. One solution could have been for the U.S. to play in their dark blue kit, but that did not fit into their commercial plan, the reports added.
-Reuters
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Mexico and Portugal played out a 0-0 draw at the Estadio Azteca on Saturday in a friendly to mark the stadium’s reopening ahead of the World Cup.
The match doubled as a test event for the revamped stadium, drawing a festive crowd eager to sample the atmosphere ahead of the June 11 to July 19 global soccer showpiece, which Mexico is co-hosting with the U.S. and Canada.
“It’s the best possible scenario, as I’ve said; to play here, you’ve got to have guts, because the fans are demanding and want to win and see good football,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre told reporters.
“The players gave it their all right to the end against Portugal, who are not an easy team. They’re a top-10 side, a really solid team.”
Portugal’s Joao Felix went close in the 14th minute before Goncalo Ramos struck the post midway through the first half.
The visitors continued to look the more dangerous side after the break, with Bruno Fernandes firing just wide.
Tensions briefly flared between Pedro Neto and Jesus Gallardo, while the introduction of Toluca’s Portuguese striker Paulinho was met with loud cheers from the home crowd.
“I think we had 10 shots on goal, which isn’t far off what we were aiming for,” Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said.
“What isn’t good is the number of shots on target; we lacked accuracy.
“Success or failure isn’t just about the score. There are many more factors at play these days. I think that, after 90 minutes, the team is better prepared for the World Cup.”
Mexico almost claimed a late winner through substitute Armando Gonzalez but the forward’s header went wide.
Mexico, who were booed by sections of the crowd at the final whistle, face Belgium in another friendly on Tuesday, while Portugal take on the United States the same day.
-Reuters
Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos in action with Mexico’s Erik Lira REUTERS/Eloisa Sanchez
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Amid the controversy over Senegal being stripped of the Africa Cup of Nations title and Morocco being declared winners, the international debut of Issa Diop on Friday proved something of an irony as well as a public relations coup.
The Fulham defender was born in France and played for the country at the Under-21 level, but on Thursday had his application to switch nationality to Morocco approved by world football’s governing body FIFA and was immediately drafted into the starting line-up for the 1-1 draw against Ecuador in Madrid.
Diop, whose father is Senegalese and mother from Morocco, had previously rejected overtures from both countries to play for them while holding out hope he might represent France.
The 29-year-old said several times he wanted to play for Les Bleus, but with no call-up from France coach Didier Deschamps, he has now taken up the opportunity to possibly play at the World Cup for Morocco.
“I was very happy to play in a team with a lot of good players, and I think I’ve made a good choice,” Diop said after Friday’s match.
Diop had talks with Morocco’s new coach, Mohamed Ouahbi and Moroccan Federation President Faouzi Lekjaa.
“They explained their vision to me, and I was taken in with open arms by a cheerful group of players with a great atmosphere in the camp,” he said.
The North Africans have a track record of assiduously courting players with links to the country who they believe can improve their national team, but this is the first tug-of-war over player loyalty with another African country they have won.
Senegal also draw heavily on their diaspora in France, and the 28-man squad which won the Cup of Nations in Morocco in January featured 12 French-born players.
Senegal this week formally contested the decision of the Confederation of African Football’s Appeal Board to take the title away from them.
They were ruled to have forfeited the final in Rabat on January 18 because they walked off the pitch in protest at a potentially decisive penalty awarded to Morocco, but have now referred the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The posturing between the two countries continued on Friday when Senegal held a press conference ahead of Saturday’s friendly against Peru in front of a banner that read “Champions of Africa”.
They are expected to display the Cup of Nations trophy to supporters ahead of the match at the Stade de France.
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