after we all thought that the transfer was a failure when he came to cairo and negotiated with the club but he said he will not play in the egyptian league, suddenly we read the news of agogo signing for zamalek coming from Nottingham forest in england.

“I am happy to be finally here. The move has been hampered several times but when we held head-to-head talks things went fast,” Agogo said in the press conference that was held for the new signings.

The 29-year old striker will earn him 350 000 euros per season. in a 3 years deal.

i think this the transfer of the season for us, the guy enjoy enormous physical power that no defender in the egyptian league can cope up with and his skills aren’t bad so we have a man who knows how to score what else do we need? we don’t want ronaldinho here!!!.

BTW, he will no take number 20, hew ill be number 9 or 19, this jersey in the picture was just a show for the media.

In other news:

- the team already played 2 friendlies, tied in one 1-1 with el ahly bank and won 3-0 against haras el hdood

-amr zaki was suspended after the troubles he made with the club president mamdooh abbas, he requested zamalek to leave him to play in england with wigan or else he will complain to the fifa, he said that the club president insulted him during their meeting!!!

i think amr zaki has gone too far in this issue, he want to leave and the president asked him to play the upcoming 2 matches against ahly and then he may go, bu he stupidly lost people support when he went attacking the club in the media. for its side the club administration should have kept its promise of leaving him after winning the cup. we just have to wait and see what happens.

- shikabala will be suspended for 4 months after the fifa’s court gave its final say in his case between zamalek and paok of greece. zamalek bought shikabala without paok’s agreement because the player had to return to egypt to do his military service but paok brought the issue to fifa and now shikabala is suspended, whatever the reasons are we lost a very important and vital player for the team!!!

NOTE: i said last time that abd el halim ali left the team, i am very sorry but it seems that i misunderstood. the player is still in the team and will be scoring for us next year. but if you saw what was written you would have thought that he left already. sorry again

let’s start with the transfer market:

players out:

- Hazem emam: the legend,emperor and captain number 14 retired from football and will be heading for the media.THANKS HAZEM

-Abd el halim ali: zamalek’s top scorer ever is leaving the club. THANKS ABD EL HALIM

-Tarek el sayed: the flying left wing is also leaving the club. THANKS TAREK

-Beshir el tabei: he will be heading for qatar, well i can’t say thanks beshir because he actually did nothing this year.

-Ahmed hossam and khaled saad

new coach: Holmann (Germany)

players in:

-ayman abd el aziz: very strong midfielder with great capabilities. good luck

-alaa kamal and mahmoud samir : both came from arab contracors club and expected to be an addiion to the team.

-amr adel: the strong defender from el geish joined s to help solve or fefense problem

possible transfers:
-serey dee: midfielder from cote d’ivoire
-hussein ali: left wing from petrojet club
-chymboya: very talented midfielder and pla maker from malawi

failure transfers:
-ahmed hassan (egytian team’s captain)
-ahmed hassan: mahalla striker
-agogo: ghana’s top scorer
-amir azmy megahed: left the club after signing the contracts!!!! no comment.
-alberto zacheronni: the famous Italian tactician was this close from joining us.

now to amr zaki’s issue. the club administration promised the talented striker that if we win the cup he will be allowed to achieve his dream of playing in england after they refused a lot of offers saying that the club needs him. after we won the cup, wigan club presented a very good offer for about 60 million LE and a two weeks training camp for the team the administration accepted it and were very close to sign him but suddenly they said amr zaki isn’t for sale. he complained to the football association and the next couple of days will decide what will happen.

Preparation camp

the team started their preparations in Alexandria during the past week and they will move to camp in Cairo seeking a calmer environment. also, a friendly has been scheduled with club africain from Tunisia to be played in Tunisia on the 6th of july.

Elections

the clubs election will take place on the 25th of juy to choose a new board to lead the club in the upcoming for years, these days are very critical fin the club history as these election will decide a lot. main contestants are: mamdooh abbas (current president), ismail selim and el mandooh el husseini. other 36 candidates are running for the board membership.

absent names are mortada mansour (after his expulsion from the club), morsi atallah (refused to participate) and kamal darwish (gave up his campaign in the last minutes).

that’s all for now, i will try to keep you updated whenever sth new happens in the white camp.

losing the last 2 matches in the league, everyone seemed to lose hope in anything and a lot started to think about the black days this club was going to witness after they lose the cup, but no, zamalek’s most faithful fans believed and were there in the cairo stadium to say there word. they came in huge numbers to make a record for attendance in zamalek’s matches lately and once again they proved they are the most loyal to their club.

personally, i think that any 11 players who would play in such an atmosphere would fight for the cup even if they can\t play football. so both sets of players entered the field astonished by the huge fans and started to warm up for the game.

zamalek players made a surprise for the team’s captain who was planning to retire after the match by wearing a shirt saying no for the retirement; at the same time the fans tarted cheering his name and it became emotional which made him cry.

in such an emotional atmosphere the match started, zamalek players were shaky and hesitated maybe because of the excess pressure on them, enppi on the other side started to pass the ball and created a couple of dangerous chances while zamalek depended on counter attack and wasted a couple a chances also. from on of those attacks gamal hamza won a penalty and osama hassan took it and made it 1-0. the players started to have confidence and abd el monsef continued his heroic performance. before the end shikabala hit the post after a one on one with enppi goalkeeper, a ball which could have ended the match.

in the second half, enppi started attacking and in the 17th minute scored the equalizer from a header. suddenly all dreams seemed to vanquish and the stadium went into silence. luckily amr zaki put things in the right track again quickly before tension started to rise and made it 2-1 from an extra ordinary skill of his. the rest of the half was one way toward zamalek’s goal but the defense hanged on.

the referee whistled and happiness was ever where, hazem lifted the cup and celebrated with the fans in a night to remember.

we won the cup;however, this shouldn’t by anyway blind us from the fact that half of this team needs to be given a red card. honestly our performance wasn’t good at all. we depended heavily on the personl skill of the attacking trio of amr, gamal and shikabala.we need to find a new descent coach and buy a right winger, left winger, a whole defense line and an excellent striker to replace amr zaki.

one last point, what was that ref doing???. i didn’t get it really, he gave almost every one a yellow card, sent our assistant manager out and lost control of the game and seemed nervous!!.

here are the goals

and here are the celebrations

we have been waiting for 4 years for anything to come but nothing came, we have heard a lot of promises and dreams but nothing happened, we have heard a lot of apologizes but nothing changed until we are sick of it. 4 years with nothing to cheer about!!!. these players are considered the worst in the club history and the fact that zamalek entered 18 championship but didn’t win any doesn’t make it any better for them.

on their hands, zamalek turned from a monster in Egyptian football that i feared by everyone and i mean everyone into a humble innocent team that is no longer a surprise to beat them. to prove what i am talking about is the last 2 humiliating defeats at the league 3/2 and 3/1. the players seem to provoke us , why?? i don’t know.

currently the team is in a bad condition but all this is nothing, we should everything now behind our backs and concentrate on only one thing the,the cup and the cup. these fans has really endured too much and deserve to celebrate for a while.

the situation is bad not only because the results but also, ahly has snatched each and every player we wanted to buy for the next season leaving us no super star so even the future doesn’t look pride. players are reluctant to join the team because of the miserable condition we are in and prefer to o where they find money and championships even if they won’t play at all!!.

now on to the match

ENPPI

that will be a hell of a opponent, the team is already the champion of the second round of the league and eager to win this cup after their 2005 triumph. now they are more eager putting in mind zamalek’s form in the last 2 matches.

their way in the cup was relatively easy. they are a team that plays dynamic football and can defend tightly and score easily.

they are a team of a petroleum company so they have no fans but ahly fans has pledged to fill their place so we can expect some red flags in the stands

zamalek

once thing to be optimistic about s that zamalek always play bad before cup matches so let’s hope this habit continues.

zamalek’s road to the final was relatively easy after all the big guns like ahly and ismaily were out so it was open for them as if they are saying ….win it for god sake…

anyway, the team will be missing ahmed ghanem, beshir el tabei, wesam el abdy, tarek el sayed, abd el halim and sherif ashraf because of injury , suspension and fan troubles!!

we will be having our deadly attack formed from amr zaki, shikabala and gamal hamza so 99% we will be scoring, i only fear the defense. because in all our matches we scored but then we made very silly mistakes that caused us the matches’ results.

expected line-up:
……………………abd el monsef…………….
mohamed abdallah…amr el safti…mahmoud fathallah…ahmed magdi….osama hassan
……………………….mohamed ibrahim…..ahmed abd el raouf…………….
………………………………….shikabala…………………..
…………………………amr zaki…………gamal hamza

key matchups

the players vs their career: they should win for their sake before anything else, they should prove to themselves that they are good players. if anything happens except winning a lot of faces will be shown the red card from the club

the players vs the fans: they supported them a lot, once for their sake give them sth to cheer about

defense vs second half: please stay focused or we will see what we saw in each and every match lately

amr zaki vs Europe dreams: if he want to play in england he must win this thing, otherwise he won’t be allowed to go besides, he should at least win a title with the team before he goes so that he will be remembered well

hazem emam vs good ending: he is a legend and he deserves to end his career with the club in style

match card:
what:egypt cup final
who: zamalek vs enppi
where:cairo stadium
when: 8 pm (clt)

prediction: 2-1 for zamalek (amr zaki and shikabala)

i hope the next post will be under the name champions with the picture of hazem lifting the cup

here are the groups:

group A: ahly, zamalek (egypt), asec memosa (cote d’ivoire), dynamos harrary (zimbabwe)

group B: enyemba (nigeria), hilal (sudan), mazimbe (congo), cotton (cameroon)

we can say we are in the group of death with our rivals ahly and powerful team from cote d’ivoire asec, it couldn’t have been worse. however, mohamed helmy -kroll’s assistant- refused calling it the group of death and showed confidence in the team.

if you ask me, i wished we are in the same group with ahly, why?, i want to play against them and beat them; beside, it is always see the derby in the champions league, it would be a couple of thrillers.

are first match is with them then we play with dynamos in Cairo, go play with asec in Abidjan, play with dynamos in Zimbabwe and end with ahly

expectation??, if we manage to win one of the 2 derbies and snatch a match outside we have a good chance. i think it will end like this: 1- ahly 2- zamalek 3- asec 4- dynamos

in other news, kroll announced that the cup final is his last with zamalek due to family issues. now we have to look for a good coach very fast so that we can get ready for cl before july.

let’s see what happens!!

line up: abdel wahed, karim zekry, mahmoud fathallah,amr el safti,osama 7assan,magdy atwa,ahmed abd el raouf, hazem emam, khaled saad,amr zaki, abd el halim

the match witnessed the second or 3rd participation of Jordanian defender khaled saad, a deal which over propagandized at the start of the season. he put a good performance he just need more playing time. he generally enjoys very good speed and techniques and lacks self confidence.

again, we were punished by the association to play this game only 4 days after inter club’s match. we were forced again to play with substitutes which affect our performance. i don’t know why they do this!!!

the match itself was boring and had nothing to talk about except that tersana is a very boring team which do nothing related to football except defending. what really upset me is that they are allowed to play football!!

it seems that there was a plan for the players to take yellow cards intentionally so that they guarantee not missing the cup final match. the problem is in the way they took it. amr zaki was going to be substituted and it took him 10 minutes to go out which made the ref show him the yellow card after that he went out running!!!. mahmoud fathallah was going to play a goal kick and it took him 3 minutes to do so!!!

luckily, ismaily lost 2-0 from mahallah and we are now alone in the second place and will remain so till the end 90%

that’s all for now and here is the goal

for example, title holders etoile du sahel from Tunisia lost from dynamos harrary of Zimbabwe 1-0 and 0-1!!, club ca from Tunisia also lost from enyemba 5-1 and won 2-1 and crashed!! also shebebit el qabael from Algeria and ittihad from libya. so i thought things would be a little shaky down there but we managed through.

what made worry more was the extremely bad weather in Angola, reports said humidity is 70% which would affect the players’ fitness also the referee was anonymous and i was afraid he would do sth bad. it wasn’t me alone who was afraid from the ref, also rud kroll warned the players to engage in physical challenges in the penalty area!!.

concerning this broadcasting issue, i hope things get better in the quarter finals because it would be meaningless if we can’t watch the matches, it is one of the problems in the champions league.

one thing i will miss is the north African derbies, come on !! it can’t be without it. it isn’t because i am biased or sth but because when north African teams play together you see European football in everything : fans, stadium, football itself,goals….everything.

the draw will be on Friday, we may fall with ahly in the same group…interesting!!!

no goals for today but FORZA ZAMALEK!!