Egypt on course to defend title

The Pharoahs of Egypt continued their winning spree at the ongoing Ghana 2008 soccer tournament when they inflicted 3-0 defeat on Sudan in their second "Group C" match played at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Saturday night. With this win, the Egyptians now have six points to their credit to lead the group after beating Cameroon 4-2 in the opening match. The Sudanese, who were out to impress and to at least raise their image after going down 0-3 to Zambia in their first match, put up a splendid performance but the experienced Egyptians took the lead in the 28th minute through a spot-kick taken by Hosny Abdel Motaleb, who was fouled by goalkeeper Mahgoub Abdallah. The Pharoahs continued to pile up pressure on the Sudanese but could not find the net to end the first half. Sudan brought in Ali Idris Saifeldin for Ahmed Gibril Alaeldin on resumption but it was still the Egyptians, who continued to mount pressure with good inter-positional passes while Sudan also made efforts to break the attacking machinery of the Egyptians. Sudan took over in the 52nd minute but poor finishing denied them the equalizer when Abdallah Badreldin shot off target. Egypt substituted Mohamed Abou Traika for Mohamed Abdallah Zidan in the 56th minute while Sudan also replaced Emad Abdelnaby Ibrahim for Amarri Abdel Hameed in the 60th minute. With the going uncomfortable for the Egyptians, they introduced delay tactics to absorb the intensive pressure from the Sudanese. They could bring the ball to the vital area of the Egyptians but lacked the ability to plant the ball into the net. Egypt, however, made it 2-0 in the 77th minute when substitute Abou Traika hit the back of the net with a shot when he connected home a cross from Hasan Zaky Mansour. Traika was on target again to seal the doom of the Sudanese in the 82nd minute in a two-man move with Said Abdel Wahed. Motaleb Abdel and Ahmed Fathy Moneim Ibrahim, both of Egypt, were elected MTN man-of-the-match and Samsung fair-play player, respectively.