Abuja 2003: Egypt Deflates Ghana's Ego

North African hockey powerhouse overcame an initial scare from Ghana's men hockey team and suceeded in punishing them with a 6-1 scoreline in the final group stages matches at the 8th All Africa Games in Abuja.

The Ghanaians started so well and enjoyed the support of their West African neighbours Nigeria, but blew away a golden opportunity to unsettle the Egyptians in the very first minute. From the push-off, Alfred Armah, Edward Oblie and Daniel Lamptey combined to release Armah right in the shooting circle. With only the goalie to beat, he messed up the chance and Patrick Taylor did not help matters either when he swung his stick above the ball with an empty goal in front of him. The Ghanaians dominated play for the first five minutes and should have surely scored, but chance after chance, they messed-up.

The Egyptians accepted the challenge and crawled back into the game. Their first major move resulted in a penalty corner. The conversion left an attacker face to face with goalie Marox Abadoo who could only foul him after a sweet dummy for a penalty stroke to be awarded. Abdel Aziz made no mistake as he flicked into the roof of the net for the opener in the 7th minute.

The goal punctured the ego of the Ghanains and instead of gingering them up, they lost thier sense of direction as issued out by the technical bench and resorted to a rather unfamiliar play. Armah was let loose on the right and with only the goalie to beat, he blew the chance away again. The Egyptians oblidged their mediocrity and punished them with 2 more goals to end the half 3-0.

Back from recess, the Ghanaians tried to pick up their game, but goalie Marox Abadoo presented an Egpytian attacker with the simplest of opportunities to increase the tally to 4 from close range. The midfield and defenceline of the Ghanains kept commiting basic errors and time and again, they got scorched by the Egyptians on two occasions to race into an unbeatable 6-0 lead. Marox was pulled out for Amegavie during the latter part of the second half, and he saved the situation from further decay.

After the 6th goal, the Ghanaians completely lost direction and scream as their handlers did, they continued to commit fundamental errors. They however showed flashes of what they could do when a swift combination from midfield release Samuel Kwaw on the left to finish with a cracker that left the Egyptian goalie stranded and the crowd applauding.

As the log stands now, Ghana placed 4th behind South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria in that order and will therefore play Nigeria on Thursday in the play-offs to determine who wins bronze. The match will be a grudge one especially, when the Nigerians believe they are superior to the Ghanaians despite just having an artificial turf laid for them about a month ago. The Ghanaians have everything to play for and to reward themselves and those who have kept faith with haockey all these trying years. Egypt will also test their might once more against South Africa in a cliff-hanger to determine who wins gold and represent the Continent at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.