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itchycoo
Eric Portapotty
--------------------------------------------
Players of the season:
Ahmed El Ashri
My Harry Kane, put it that way.
Mohamed Mabrouk
Mahmoud Ibrahim
Ahmed Emam
A wicked left foot granted him a couple of Bale-esque goals, and a good burst of pace did him all the world of good on the counter.
Mahmoud Abdel Fatah
Been starting a number of games for the Egyptian NT, a sign of his growing reputation in the country.
And what of our best loanees?
Mohamed Talaat
He endured an awful spell before the halfway mark of the season where his lack of aerial ability was brutally found out (and coincided with his team's losing streak), but they then forgot how to defend against him again and he recovered to end the season well.
Got a cup final on his belt as well(though he didn't play in it), all in all a very good deal.
Franck Yao
Cheikh Diouf
It's evident that he's benefited a whole lot from Watford, but I'd prefer that he played more - a loan to a mid table Portuguese side might do the trick.
A good season, and we can look forward to getting back to the Champions League.
---------
Finally, a surprising bit of news:
We're going to Amsterdam! Nice to see that our achievements have not gone unnoticed on the global stage (though beating Real Madrid would've done that).
Eric Portapotty
We started off news from Edinburgh:
It's a sad day when Hibs are no longer considered more famous than a team from Egypt.
In return we get an affiliation with a meme team - Young Boys (inb4 pedo jokes).
Not too bad, at least we get paid in this deal.
More money which is good.
Now this was a welcome surprise, albeit a near-meaningless contribution - we'd been losing around 800k p/m last season, and with the inevitable contract renewals and wages rises this can be expected to be gone within 3 months
There really isn't much of a contest over who our Poty would be considering the heights El Ashri reached, so it was no surprise then that Mabrouk took home that accolade.
I mean he did have his best season, but come on, El Ashri's done that in his debut year as a starter, at least let him have this once.
Onto transfers now:
Lots of ins and outs, though I've mostly opted for more of the same from last season, with loans just arriving for cover.
Man's back, though for 3 months only since his parent club's deal ends in November.
This one I've picked up just for tutoring, really.
Unfortunately he can't be arsed to tutor the better prospects in the team so it may have been a futile effort.
Still, excellent playmaking ability should we require his services.
Of the outs... Well Abdel Kader was injured for the entirety of preseason so he couldn't show what he could do, but by that time I'd already decided that he's be somewhere around 5th choice CB, so sending him out on loan for regular football (even at Tersana) would be a win for the parties involved.
I was amazed when they coughed up a million for Yao though, he was still 2nd choice and 1.1 mil for a backup was too good to resist, especially when I've got another decent LB in the youth squad - a year's loan back helped quite a bit as well.
Benoit David had potential, but he never looked like he could be anything more than a backup to Abdel Fatah - another loan back in the event of a goalkeeping injury crisis.
With that settled, onto our preseason proper:
Twente aside, everything was a walk in the park, sweeping aside minnows like we're Bayern.
Halfway through this we travelled to Amsterdam:
I suppose one could call it a smash and grab (it did come from one of the Sociedad CB's mistakes) but we held our own here I feel.
Attacking on the counter worked again, with El Ashri scoring against a major European side for the 2nd straight year.
Beating Ajax on their own turf though, that took some nuts.
Preseason now over, we now headed to the season opener - the Egyptian Super Cup:
Given that the ref got a rating of 10 post-match, I'm going to assume that the penalty wasn't at all controversial, despite some very loud claims to the contrary.
Unfortunately, El Ashri's knock was anything but:
4 months out with a broken foot? At 19?
It's also a bitter blow to our title chances, but it does mean Mahmoud Ibrahim can now stake a claim up top, having been shifted to the right wing since Abdellaoui.
Let's end on a positive note, shall we?
A constant in our backline for the past decade, he's seen (and endured) some shit but now he can at least call Egypt home.
Eric Portapotty
A league opener against Egypt's current equivalent of Liverpool, Zamalek.
Good win, Farouk could've been more accurate with his shooting but at least he did score one.
3 crosses from the left wing, 3 goals from Ibrahim on the right flank.
2 wins from 2 is good, but Al Ahly have again set the pace. Fingers crossed they crumble as they did last season.
Eric Portapotty
We were 4 goals up by the half-hour mark and should've been adding to it, so imagine my discontent (putting it lightly)n when we'd conceded 2 by the end of the game.
This one? 2 up inside 10 minutes, but we still conceded with over 20 minutes to go to make things interesting, so to speak.
Taalat come on after returning from his loan (for his debut no less) and scored an unlikely double to make the game safe.
So we went from 2 clean sheets from 2 to consecutive 5-2s, something's gone a bit iffy it seems.
Awful, tried to appease one of my youth CBs' (Khalifa) demands for game time and this is how I'm rewarded.
Though considering how the past few games have gone it was more of the forwards' fault for not plundering another 5 goals, obviously.
After that reversal I'd have taken a narrow win against another title challenger, Tersana. And so it proved.
Ibrahim was utterly dire here, and I took an Abdel Kader double to settle matters.
A tight table, but already a couple of big(ish) names have started to fall behind - Tersana and Ismaily to name two.
Also, the striker that we loaned to El Gouna has incredibly scored 9 goals in 6 starts, propelling them to third - utterly bizarre considering he's actually essentially hopeless.
Eric Portapotty
Aymen Farouk spends the game missing shot after shot, running the ball towards the corner flag, getting in the way of his teammates' shots... then scores a brace. Such a frustrating player, even if his ability as a striker is undeniable.
Honestly though we would wipe the floor with these guys - newly promoted in their 1st season in the top flight, they definitely looked like ripe pickings.
Look a relative age to get going, and by the end of the match we were probably just glad that this wasn't an embarrassing slip up.
We did wipe the floor with Ittihad though, Ibrahim with a virtuoso performance in front of goal.
Way to bring us back down to earth, guys.
Conceding from a setpiece, we proceeded to waste attempt after attempt on goal, Farouk and Ibrahim not covering themselves in glory in the process.
Oh how I wish Al Ahly would sell their Czech GK and buy a dud to replace him...
We're now behind on head-to-head, and with Al Ahly still unbeaten we could well find that that might not be necesay to separate us come the end of the season.
Eric Portapotty
A good win, got caught out on the counter a few times too many for my liking, but what's important is us keeping up with Al Ahly.
Another brilliant showing from Ibrahim, an assist and a hat-trick.
In fact, coupled with a hat trick against Senegal in the World Cup qualification playoffs he's now frontrunner for African Footballer of the Year:
Tbf I'd think El Ashri would've been more deserving had he not broken his foot, but credit has to be given to Ibrahim for stepping up and grabbing this opportunity to impress.
We're playing catch-up from this point on, desperately need to get one over them the next time we meet to claim the head-to-head stakes again.
Eric Portapotty
What an abysmal match to sit through, Ibrahim was useless in front of goal, often opting to chip the goalkeeper when a good old whack of the right foot would have sufficed.
Worse still, Mabrouk tore his hamstring and would be out for the next 3 months - at his age and the mprovement of the rest of the squad he may find it hard to break into the starting 11 again.
An early cushion, but letting one back relatively early as well resulted in some of the most unconvincing defending I've seen,
At least we kept it at 2-1 here.
Not here though, some terrible defending allowed their strikers to go between our centrebacks to score both their goals.
Emam also missed a couple of great chances, and I rightfully (
In an attempt to freshen up the backline I decided to give transfer requester Khalifa another shot at goal. How did he repay me? With a 5.7. An absolute joke.
Hany Gamal also managed to dislocate his shoulder and he'd be out for the next 2 months as well.
It'd looked like the malaise would continue when Zamalek equalised, but thank goodness for the return to goalscoring from El Ashri.
In the end it was a comfortable win (after what seemed to be an eternity of shite), albeit at the expense of Zamalek's gaffer:
They've been struggling for a couple of season now, being completely unable to cope with the new moneybags, but everytime when it looked like he'll be sacked he'd always lead them through a good run of form.
Losing to us was the nadir though, it seemed.
Anyway, a disastrous month has seen us fall out of the 2 CL spots, and I'd've been worse had Al Moqaoloun not done the whole of Egypt a favour and ended Al Ahly's unbeaten run.
Now for some good news:
It's no shame coming second to an African Champions League and Africa Cup of Nations winner.
A bit injury prone, but he's done well and proved himself to be worthy of consideration in the national side.
In the team of the year, African Striker of the Year, it''s been a good campaign for Ibrahim.
Eric Portapotty
Segun Uche has been an inspired signing for Damahour (their top scorer) so as much as I'd have liked to keep him quite it was inevitable that he'd pop one in. Quite disappointed for their second though, our leftback completely lost their winger on the break, allowing him to slot home.
This was infinitely more damning - we shouldn't even be conceding 2 to this fucking lot, let alone having to come back after having an early lead.
Worse still was Ibrahim taking another knock, twisted ankle keeping him out for a couple of weeks.
An absolutely shameful run has seen us fall completely out of the title race, everyone's basically handed Al Ahly the title on a platter.
Transfer news:
Absolutely dirt cheap and on loan, and with Mabrouk and Gamal out we needed another body in central midfield.
Again, the money's too good for me not to say yes, though we'll still contrive to blow the million in about a month or so.
Eric Portapotty
Yes we did score 4, but under no circumstances should we have conceded 2 to Sohag, especially when it's from 3 shots only.
A relatively good win considering we lost both El Ashri and Ibrahim up front (injury plagued season....), but that late goal made things slightly uncomfortable.
They put 2 of our guys out of the game, so I though I'd return the favour and injure some of theirs.
Really though, the way we were outplayed means a goalless draw was probably sufficient.
The defence was an atrocity here, passing out from the back was going nowhere and our centrebacks could'nt deal with Al-Hammadi.
Amin was hopeless in particular.
So we're out of the CL spots, with an inferior head-to-head record against Al Moqaoloun, just great.
At least we're actually in the CL this season, where we can lok forward to thumping minnows in the early rounds.
And how! The youth teamers really proved a point here.
Broke a few records for good measure.
Eric Portapotty
Conceding far too many equalisers recently, not at all a comfortable trend.
At least Farouk showed great poaching ability and made the game safe.
Disgusting how it only finished 2-1, 30 shots of rubbish, 2 went in.
By contrast Al-Mareekh only needed 1 shot on goal to get theirs - efficiency right there.
That's more like it, Farouk with dat pace to tear Ittihad a new one.
To round off the month we visited Al Ahly - they'd sold their Czech goalkeeper - their only registered stopper for the season - to Rubin Kazan, so we definitely came looking for blood.
Unfortunately we played like we'd lost our goalkeeper as well, some exceptionally terrible defending gifting them 3 goals, with Abdel Kader's lack of discipline not helping at all.
Fortunately Mabrouk took advantage of their lack of competence at the back with a double, before Emam broke away once more to lob over a delightful winner.
An extremely satisfying victory, revenge has been enjoyed - though it's been soured to an extent with El Ashri's injury; a torn calf muscle which will see him sit out the next couple of months, his third injury this season.
A perfect month then, though it seems like it's not done much - Al Ahly are still well out of sight, while Al Moqaoloun will most likely win their game in hand and leapfrog us once again.
Off to the Champions League:
Not 9-0, with out forward comparatively misfiring this time round, but a 15-0 aggregate score it is.
In the next round we met Al Hilal; a feeder team of Al Ahl'ys, it's surprising that they didn't loan them anyone for the CL campaign, but oh well, at least we've got ourselves an easier ride here.
I'll take it, no away goals and we'll probably score a couple there in all likelihood.
El Amrani has been absolute class so far, a great free kick taker with a mean right foot in open play as well.
Finally, a new intake:
At first clance, a slightly inferior batch compared to last season - another right winger I probably won't use (not with Farouk and Ibrahim being mainstays there) and a GK who's going to end up being released because he won't get enough (any) games.
Best prospect, good bit of speed, decent ball control, but still quite raw in terms of proper footballing ability.
Can (and will need to) be worked on.
itchycoo
Sheriff Skacel
Sheriff Skacel
Ninja
It happens in South Africa too.
I was keeping Vasco solvent basically by selling first teamers and replacing them from the academy. Those academy players would invariably go on to become my best players within 2 seasons and the cycle repeats.
It was even more ridiculous at Tuks, they have stupidly good youth facilities for their league, I was raking in somewhere between £500,000 -£1m a year in transfer fees for players on potential alone they'd have gone on to become the best players in the league, but you just can't turn down that sort of money, it can literally buy you 2 or 3 first team players straight off the bat.
Sheriff Skacel
Eric Portapotty
I would, but the defensive side of his game leaves a lot to be desired tbh, but given how my current RBs have next to no attacking ability I'll have to give it a go, if only to provide alternatives.
------------------
Al-Ghamdi (19 and nothing more than youth fodder) doubled his seasonal tally against us, showed how on form our backline was on the day.
Ibrahim saved us here, conceded 1st yet again, can't seem to get the defence going from the get go.
Then there's stuff like this - no doubt another terrific performance from the forwards (Ibrahim), but we shouldn't have let them claw 2 goals back.
Again with the early concession of goals, now with the increasingly familiar injury to the man up top.
Third injury for Ibrahim this season, so he's now tied with El Ashri here (though the latter has had far more time out) - hoo fucking ray.
With that draw we find ourselves handing Al Ahly the title on a platter, and having to tread carefully with Tersana and Al Moqaoloun breathing down our necks for the 2nd CL spot.
What is a clean sheet?
Enough of the league bullshit, we need to find solace on the continental front.
Played a very young side, and we damn near paid for it, rather inexplicably.
Wantaway CB Khalifa (who just sent in his 2nd transfer request of the season) was a walking disaster despite his goal, I've more than half a mind to flog him to some hellhole.
Next up were Ghanian giants Hearts of Oak, unfortunately for them (and Ghanaian sides in general) they're simply unable to compete financially at the time.
Comfortable enough, a 5-goal lead might just be enough to play another youth side for the away leg.
Though I did say that for Al Hilal...
Ninja
Kaizer Chiefs bought a right back for £300k. The only decent fee I received Vasco, but that was about a 2 year budget.
At Tuks I mostly sold directly to Europe. Bologna bought a striker for £300k. Ajax a midfielder for £1m (I probably could have got more, I asked for a million thinking it crazy and hoping to get rid of them but they accepted on the spot), Ajax - again - bought an AM for £775k.
I never actively looked to sell these players, but felt I couldn't refuse that money.
Since I've moved on to pastures new they've also sold a striker to Feyenoord for £500k, a defender to America Cali for £400k and a striker to Millianaros for £1.4m. None of these players older than 23 and most about 17.
I don't know if the fact I was playing there and the higher league rep as a result of my Champion's League success factors in to those prices, but its crazy money for an African club.
Sheriff Skacel
I've been playing AMRs who've never even heard of tackling from DR, I've also played AMRL, STs from there and in one such game the RB got 2 goals. Its not happening on the regular but when they do score or assist from RB I do feel warm inside. Worst comes to worst just play him vs the Ghanian teams, they seem to be shite anyways
That's always the best thing, when you don't have to offer the players out and the bids come in. I miss managing at that level, currently with Palermo and getting a bit bored of the high transfer fees and scouting woes. I like developing and selling the players on, nothing beats getting that first 100k sale and you thinking its the best thing since Marco Borriello.
Eric Portapotty
Another bout of concentration loss led, yet again, to us conceding the opener.
Fortunately (and not for the first time) Farouk's sheer pace on the break got us a comeback win, albeit an unconvincing one.
What an atrocious clusterfuck of a match - considering the circumstances I'm relieved with a draw, but fuck me those circumstances need not have happened.
And yes, Abdel Kader and Farouk both suffered injuries, in addition to Eric Alhassan - we've had a horror season with injuries.
The silver lining would be Mabrouk saving our asses once again, never get tired of this guy.
The draw meant that Al Ahly held a title-winning 5-point lead going into the last matchday, while the 2nd CL spot was down to us, Tersana (both on 73 pts) and Al Moqaoloun (72). We had Tersana beat on the H2H, but the latter has the upper hand there.
Basically I've to match or better their results.
Well that was easier than I expected - we'd endured a horrific reversal against them earlier in the season and this time we didn't have Mahmoud Ibrahim to help keep the scoreline respectable (injury, what a surprise).
Koroum were positive from the get go and created a fair number of chances, and we did well enough to establish a cushion that we would need once we (inevitably) conceded.
I'll have to look back through the season to have a proper summary, but at this point I can't quite tell if I should be happy with 2nd place.
Zamalek though, plenty to talk about there - after seasons of underachievement before surging to respectable tophalf finishes they finally broke and finished in 10th, changing managers midway through.
Anyway, it's the end of the league, which means the cup's now up and running:
Easy enough, with a strong senior defensive block and a couple of our most promising talents tasked with attacking.
More of the same, except they managed to score with their 1st effort.
And it turns out that you wouldn't want to score an opener against our youths - they don't hold back.
Next round is Suez Cement in what has been a comfortable cup for us so far - Al Ahly, Al Moqaoloun, Tersana and Zamalek all meet other by contrast.
Off to another cup competition:
A completely fringe XI, we had Gamal to thank for the win.
So we're back in the BIG, big time, and are among some established company.
It turns out that we're the only Egyptian side left in the competition as well - Al Ahly lost to Tunis, as they continue to rue selling their only registered stopper.
Finally, World Cup time - they'll all miss the remainder of the Egyptian Cup, but El Ashri misses out having endured a season to forget.
Oh well, their loss is our gain.
Eric Portapotty
We scored an early - very early - goal, but but found it hard to add to that scoreline in the 1st period.
We came out from the interval all guns blazing, and when the 2nd goal went in the floodgates opened.
Semis was another considerably inferior side in Petrojet, no offence but when I could have drawn Tersana or Al Moqaoloun this is definitelythe best we could've asked for.
A decent win too, wrapped the game up early and could've (SHOULD'VE) added to the scoreline.
The final pitted us against Al Moqaoloun, whom we lost to on both league encounters this season.
They'd had no pressure to win in order to qualify for the Confederation Cup next season, as since we were already 2nd they'd get the spot regardless of this result.
Still let's not kid ourselves here - they went to win this, and we want to exact revenge for our league losses:
In what was to be his final game for Al Moqaoloun (his deal expires this season and he's 34) Hani Abdel Fatah scored against his former club with a great free kick. What could have been really, if we weren't strapped for cash all those years ago and were forced to sell him to Al Ahly.
Fortunately current Smouha legend Mabrouk restored parity with a great finish - he'd missed a couple of good chances but came good when it mattered.
Then LB for the day Amr Hassan rose highest to head in a corner... SCENES
I'll be honest, I could scarcely have gotten an easier route to the final so this wasn't as exceptional as it looks.
It's a record nonetheless though \o/
Eric Portapotty
Mahmoud Ibrahim is by far the best performer this season, 31 goals and 13 assists in just 25 league games is simply unparalleled this campaign.
Ahmed Emam also contributed a fair bit this campaign, being a virtual ever present on the left flank.
A bit too shot-happy in games but 16 assist means he still does make the right decisions.
Aymen Farouk also managed an extended run in the side with Ibrahim shifted up top, and also managed double-doubles in his right wing poaching role.
ABSOLUTE UTTER FUCKING TWAT OF THE SEASON
Mohamed Khalifa - demanding more game time, completely losing us the game (against Al Moqaoloun), being at fault for most of our league defeats, requesting for a transfer twice - don't think I've had a play as troublesome as him.
He'll be loaned out, hopefully a change of scenery will calm him down.
I could be said that we'd done well to get 2nd having lost Ahmed El Ashri and Mahmoud Ibrahim (to a lesser extent) for most of the season, but it really is a question of 'if only' - losing El Ashri to multiple injuries was a freak occurrence, but the amount of knocks that the players have suffered at various points needs to be addressed.
Finally, a transfer:
He's done extremely well in his time here, a great free kick taker, and he possess a couple of great preferred moves.
Eric Portapotty
Entered the group stages of the CL, and we get this? Bollocks.
We're still a couple of million in the black, but I'm not expecting it to last the season.
Unusually, the rest of the sugar daddy clubs don't seem to have as much of a financial situation as we do - either the owners are still pumping loads of cash into the clubs or we're just shit at money.
Underperformed despite being little more than a midtable club, Haras El Hodoud seem to have been spoiled by the previous season's relative success.
Should've been Zamalek, I guess for them genuine underachievement at this point is relegation it seems.
I dread the day he retires.
Though it really shouldn't have been him by the looks of it anyway, Mahmoud Ibrahim tore shit up last season and would've got the award had he been at any other club.
Case in point.
Our capacity is 17075, so we're pretty damn near to maxing that out.
Unfortunately we're unable to expand the stadium (not ours) and it's obviously idiotic to build a new ground with our current state of finances.
Transfers now:
Abdel Rahman's a youth LB who has great potential, but with 2 LBs already established at the club having him sitting at third choice wouldn't be good for his development anyway.
Money's pretty good as well, as usual.
Khalifa will get games at Haras El Hodoud, Adel gets yet another loan while he runs his time down at the club and retires, and for some reason TP Mazembe was willing to give Alhassan game time.
Cheikh Diouf goes on another loan, this time to newly promoted Ligue 1 Bordeaux - not bad, already scored in his debut.
You'll also notice that Petrojet took two of my guys on loan, oh how the tables turn.
Despite justifiably selling Abdel Rahman cover was definitely needed especially when looking back at last season's injury hell.
Could be cheaper, but he looks ready enough so he'll do.
Clean sweep, but slight concerns over the form of a couple of men.
The Kafr game was also a testimonial for their veteran CB - won MoM as well, nice touch.
Onto the CL GROUP STAGE:
Not a good return, and yet another reversal against Orlando.
Tried to contain their midfield but we were always on the back foot.
THAT'S MORE LIKE IT
Completely dominated proceedings, and if not for some poor decision making in front of goal (and plain poor finishing) we'd have a more comfortable time than having to defend a 1-goal lead.
It's arguable whether Orlando is the best team in this group, but what matters is they do have 6 from 6 so far.
Next up is MC Alger at home, need to make sure that we can wrap that up.
Back home we had the seasonal curtain-raiser:
Again the forwards were poor, but at least we were on top for the 1st half, up till Mabrouk's opener.
After Darwish equalised it was all downhill - we tired, they got chances, and with so many yellows we couldn't get at them as we'd have liked.
Then it came to penalties - Abdel Latif missed the 1st, and what a pity it was - all subsequent pens were well taken, leaving us with only a best losers tag.here.
bmg033
An award that's not quite as prestigious as the Ballon d'Or i'm guessing
Eric Portapotty
I'll shove it right up his candy ass tbh.
Eric Portapotty
I put out a weakened squad to face Ismaily, and damn nearly paid for it.
Aziz Amer is turning out to be a nifty understudy to Mabrouk, now if only he'd only agree to be tutored by him.
Obvious (BLATANT) refereeing bias aside, We were again very wasteful in front of goal in the 1st half, El Ashri a particular culprit.
We did eventually find our goals though, on the way to a deserved victory.
Another B-ish team, though we did start very well this time, even if the majority of the 2nd half didn't exactly make for comfortable watching.
El Ashri came on as a late sub and missed a sitter, yet to open his league account - slightly worrying.
Abdel Rahim staking his claim for a starting berth here, and with El Ashri not firing on all cylinders he might just have a chance.
4 wins from 4, despite juggling the CL and unconvincing performances - I'm sure we can pull away once we can focus fully on the league and El Ashri finds back his scoring touch (though it is every only an 'if' at this point).
Champions League - Group A:
The opening period was a shambles - we couldn't play ourselves out of our own half and were dominated by Alger.
We eventually got going and won a corner (which El Sayed scored from) then Ibrahim scored a sublime chip that sent us into the interval with an unlikely parity.
Another 2 goals off corners and Ibrahim's second later, and we manage to find ourselves on the cusp of a famous win - top, top work by the team.
I asked for revenge for the team, and we still couldn't quite get it - seems like we've got quite the mental block against them Pirates, not ideal.
I'm tampted to say that we only need a win (or 2 draws?) to secure our semifinal spot, but Definitely need Alger and Sfax to stay away.
The best case scenario is for them to draw, leaving us a buffer over them.
We end off with a deadline day deal:
Can I just say, we totally robbed them - he wasn't doing very well for some time now (his crossing not doing as much as I'd hoped) and him being stuck on 2-star mean that cashing in was a no-brainer.
Furthermore with a guy like him waiting in the wings there's just no way to lose.
In fact Al Moqaoloun seem to have realised they's bought the wrong RB and made an even later bid for Ragab that day
Eric Portapotty
A comfortable start against a side who had shocked Al Ahly 2-0 - their only win so far too.
A disappointing effort in our first real test, shooting was subpar as usual, but it wasn't helped by Tersana taking out 2 of our key players inside 30 minutes.
Never truly got going, and paid for it against the 10 men.
Still licking our wounds from our 1st loss in the league, we looked set to suffer another when El Gouna took a very early lead, then retook it after we equalised.
Luck was on our side this time, a controversial penalty in our favour.
El Ashri, despite scoring and winning the penalty, missed a great few chances - still not up to scratch.
Fortunately for us Tersana suffered a shock 6-2 thumping at Masr El Makasa, which let us keep pace with the league leaders.
Need El Ashri to rediscover his scoring touch, a regular goalgetter can only help, as he shown in his title-winning campaign.
Alger got torn a new one at home by Sfax (7-3), and another thumping at our hands ensured a premature end to their qualification hopes.
El Ashri showed there's still a world-beater in him with 2 goals and an assist.
Orlando beat Sfax 2-0 in the group's other game, so:
Been a great campaign, we've showed that we can slug it out with the big boys with our firepower.
Only problem definitely is our streak against Orlando, if it's now a mental block then we could have serious problems should we get to the final and meet them.
The last group game offered a chance to grab top sport (should Orlando somehow lose to Alger), but with qualification already settled this was an opportunity to ensure that no one got suspensions for accumulating yellows.
Outplayed here, not the best performance.
Orlando beat Alger anyway, so it didn't matter.
Semifinals pits us with defending champions CRB Ain Fakroun - they've undergone some asset stripping without signing replacements, but if they could make it to straight semis they're definitely a side of considerable calibre regardless.
Still, I like our chances - on our day we've shown that we can outplay anyone.
Eric Portapotty
Very solid win, El Ashri with 2 early goals.
Now this was a rollercoaster - a start so bad you can't imagine, followed by getting one back, before we really turned on the screws in the 2nd half.
Doesn't help Mehdat Mostafa's job one bit - there've been murmurs before the game, and this reversal wouldn't have helped.
Solid win, took quite a while for us to finally get one in, but when we got into our groove there was no stopping us.
Emam took quite a bit of a knock which unfortunately for him would rule him out for a couple of important games.
Rested the regulars for this game, always a riskk when Dmamhour had Mr. Segun Uche up top - blessed with height, speed and no shortage of poaching ability he was always going to get a goal or two.
Fortunately we were the luckier side on the night, 2 long rangers and a cock-up of an OG.
Back to within reach of the top, Tersana tripping up giving us that opportunity.
most importantly is the potential to keep the distance against the sides 3rd and below, to have a grip on the CL spots.
On to the CL semi finals - let's see what we can do against the defending champions:
Wow, one of our best performances ever, more so considering our opposition and the importance of this tie.
We rained hell upon CRB at the start, El Ashri and Ibrahim both scoring braces in the 1st 20 minutes to put the tie shockingly early to bed (or so it seemed anyway).
A few more plundered in and a consolation in the 2nd half ensured one of our greatest wins in the competition.
A few negatives though: Salah Amin hurt himself pretty badly and is effectively ruled out for the rest of the tournament, and the attendance figure was also pretty disappointing - this is probably the biggest stage the club's ben in for goodness sake, if you could fill the stadium (17075) against Al Ahly why not here?
Anyway, with the tie effectively in the bag I decided to rest a number of key players, mostly to prevent them from incurring another yellow and getting suspended from the final.
Well:
Never, ever take progression for granted.
The 1st half was business as usual, we attacked more but meekly failed to put the ball into the back of the net.
The we came out for the 2nd half and CRB played like men possessed, scoring with effectively every attack.
Wael El Sayed was an absolute atrocity at leftback, Adama Yao didn't do himself any favours either, and Abdel Latif spoke a few to many choice word and was promptly dismissed, making our job harder than ever.
Thank fuck then that as soon as the 5th went in they seemed to throw away their shoooting boots and we (SOMEHOW) went through to the final - cue (THOROUGHLY UNDESERVED) celebrations.
Why the fuck is their gaffer scolding them? They won 5-0 for fuck's sake.
Me? I gave them a deserved rollicking, put it that way.
So we meet our nemesis yet again, after they wrecked TP Mazembe in the other semi.
They's arguably odds on to win the whole thing, not least because of our 2nd leg 'performance', and also due to injuries to both Amin and Emam.
Eric Portapotty
I'll get to the Champions League in a bit, but first, the league:
El Ashri cut a frustrated figure as our attack's focal point, so when Farouk scored an absolute fluke from out wide on the right I went 'Fuck it', hauled El Ashri off and shifted Farouk up top.
It turned out that (surprise surprise) pace on the break is very useful against teams chasing a deficit, so Farouk did just that.
We seemed to be much more interested in defending a lead than looking to extending it, which we eventually did - barely.
They scored with their 1st effort on goal, we make an instant reply with ours.
We then tore them too shreds on the counter (which is what happens when your striker is in midfield apparently) but just couldn't score more than a single goal before they levelled going into the break.
2nd half was an extremely frustrating one, we broke in usual fashion but took far too many of our shots outside the box when the players clearly had a load of space for them to run further into their half.
Had to get through a period of uncomfortable defending, but it was us who finally broke through and earn a harder-than-expected 3 points.
Wasn't expecting to get a win here, Wadi Degla might have not much to show for but they do have one of the league's best shotstoppers and have also frustrated s in previous encounters - so imagine my surprise when we managed to secure a comeback win.
Gamal ran the show - he was brought down for the penalty, his free kick hit the bar and Abdel Rahim converted the rebound, and his scored the 3rd.
Looks a decent prospect, eh?
Odd game, We looked dead and buried by the 30-minute mark before El Ashri gave us a lifeline.
Literally everything went to absolute pot after the interval - we'd managed to grab the lead with 2 goals in 5 minutes, El Ashri then fucked up with a backpass (FROM THE OPPONENTS' HALF) to restore parity, then further defensive chaos ensured we'd somehow come out of this game with 6 goals.
Both defences were absolutely wretched, even El Ashri would've been chastised if it hadn't been for his treble.
So we enter December with a 6-point lead at the top, a good gap but knowing us we'll blow it on the penultimate matchday.
Might sound like a worrywart here but the return fixture against Al Moqaoloun will have to be handled carefully, big teams don't like to get thumped.
So we're off to the CL finals - Having been in both group stage games by Orlando Pirates, how will we fare in the next 2 games?
A desperately disappointing performance - our early defending let us down yet again, while Ibrahim and El Ashri weren't able to replicate their form for the national team to the club side.
An away goal from Gamal keeps our hopes alive.
Well they were alive, up to the eve of the 2nd leg:
That's 6 players gone (including Salah Amin who - lo and behold - has recovered just in time for the internationals), what briliant scheduling.
As good as Farouk is he was never going to be as clutch as El Ashri or Ibrahim (though they've proved otherwise anyway), and when we flapped at another clearance it was curtains.
Damning to realise that we really do have a mental block against Orlando, and even more so at the fact that this could well have been our only shot at the CL - it's not like another CL group stage spot will fall on our feet next year.
Eric Portapotty
Rested most of the regulars in anticipation of the Ismaily a couple of days later, turned out pretty well, even if we did look wobbly after conceding an equaliser.
Well, Ismaily... It didn't go so well.
They pressed us hard on every ball, and camped in our half for the 1st 45 minutes, earning a penalty.
Abdel Fadil then tore us to shreds on the counter, and despite Mabrouk getting a goal back it wasn't to be.
Our bid to recover from the previous loss started poorly, Abdel Fatah being completely caught out by a freekick that looked much more like a crossing opportunity.
But then we woke up, Emam (for once) scoring, then setting up Mabrouk for a coolly volleyed finish just before the break.
Great finishes from Ibrahim and Abdel Kader, and we're back in business.
Played the 1st team, expected much more.
20 shots, and we scored with our 2 shots on target - considering how rubbish their stopper must-ve been we should've tested him more.
The Egyptian NT strike partners both scored in the 1st 10 minutes. and while El Ashri did eventually get a treble Ibrahim could've too but for a header that smashed the crossbar.
Tersnan absolutely bottled it this month, getting only 5 points from a possible 15, allowing Damanhour to leapfrog them into 2nd.
More importantly, it allowed us to attain a massive 11 point lead, and with over half of the season gone it's a vital advantage.
Now, to some miscellany - a new contract:
Incredible how the club agreed to my request of a new ground, we're bleeding money month-on-month, and a new stadium will only load shameful amounts of debt.
But all things considered it's probably a necessity, we're bloody close to maxing our capacity (and average attendance of 96.73%) and fingers crossed an increased capacity will give us self sustainability a la Al Ahly (after we somehow repay the stadium debt).
That said I'm expecting the board to scrap the plans citing a lack of funds.
There was also the CAF YPoTY award (the PoTY has none of our guys so fuck that):
Nice... Shows the amount of potential this club could well have in the next few years - that said Abdel Kader won it a couple of years back and is still being completely ignored by the national setup.
Anyway:
Not bad, given he was always Ibrahim's deputy on the right wing.