Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Robson Sharuko
17 June 2009
Johannesburg — THE Pharaohs of Egypt have launched a protest against the way English referee Howard Webb gave the decisive penalty, in the dying minutes of their game against Brazil, which the African champions lost 3-4.
The big moment came with two minutes of regulation time left when Egyptian defender Ahmed El-Mohamadi was punished for using his hand to stop a goalbound shot and, from the ensuing penalty, Kaka scored to give Brazil their victory.
A brave Egypt had rallied from 1-3 down at the interval to level the scores, but then fell to the sucker punch.
The Egyptians appeared disturbed that Webb, the finest English referee, appeared to first point for a corner kick, before changing his decision to award a penalty and show El-Mohamadi the red card.
The Pharaohs wanted clarification as to whether Webb's decision had been influenced by the Brazilian protests.
Yesterday Fifa confirmed receiving the protest.
"Fifa have this afternoon written to the Egyptian Football Association regarding yesterday's Fifa Confederations Cup match between Brazil and Egypt," the world football governing body said in a statement.
"Whilst not disputing the correctness of the referee's decision to award a penalty in favour of Brazil, and show the Egyptian player Ahmed El-Mohamadi the red card, the Egyptian FA questioned the manner in which the referee Howard Webb came to his decision.
"Fifa analysed the decision by going through all the evidence at its disposal, including the referee's match report, as well as the additional statement that Howard Webb provided at Fifa's request.
"A thorough analysis of the aforementioned documents revealed that the decision in question was achieved through teamwork between the match referee and assistant referee number one Mike Mullarkey, who confirmed the offence to the referee from his clear viewing angle."
Egypt will now have to live with the consolation that they became the first African team to score three goals against Brazil.
Ghana and South Africa have scored two goals against Brazil. With their 4-3 win over Egypt, however, Brazil have scored three or more goals in 10 out of their 24 Confederations Cup matches.
According to the Fifa Media Channel, Giuseppe Rossi's opener against the United States was one of the fastest goals from a substitute in Confederations Cup history.
Rossi entered the game in the 57th minute and scored in the 58th. The other two players who have scored in past editions one minute after coming off the bench are Brazil's Roni against Mexico in 1999 (entered in the 46th minute with a goal in the 47th) and Germany's Hanke in 2005 against Tunisia (entered in the 88th minute with a goal in the 89th).
Landon Donovan's penalty scored against Italy was his third consecutive international goal after the ones scored in the World Cup qualifiers against Costa Rica and Honduras.
Previous head-to-heads: Iraq won the only head-to-head played between these two teams -- at the Fifa Under 20 World Cup 1989 in Saudi Arabia (2-0).
The hat trick scored by Fernando Torres in the match against New Zealand on 15 June was the fastest in Confederations Cup history (between the 6th and 17th minutes). Previously, the fastest was by Vladimir Smicer (Czech Republic) in 1997 against the United Arab Emirates (between 42nd and 71st minutes).
Spain's run now stands at 33 consecutive matches without a defeat (record Brazil 35) and 13 consecutive wins (record Australia, Brazil and France 14).
At 29 goals David Villa is now the second best scorer in the national team alongside Hierro. Fernando Torres is actually seventh along with Julio Salinas at 22 goals. This is only one goal behind legendary Di Stefano at 23 goals.
With an average age of 24 years and 8 months, Iraq's squad is the tournament's youngest. The Iraqi players are, on average, almost four years younger. Iraq are also the shortest team of the competition with an average height of 177cm. Iraq played the highest number of matches among the Confederation Cup teams (47) following the 2006 World Cup. For Australian Matthew Breeze, at 192cm the tallest referee in the competition, this is the second Confederations Cup.
Four years ago he was in charge of two matches, one of them being the third-place play-off thriller between hosts Germany and Mexico.
South Africa vs New Zealand
Previous head-to-heads: Four matches: NZL 0; Draws 0; RSA 4.
South Africa have won all their head-to-heads against New Zealand, scoring a total of 24 goals. All the matches were friendlies, played in New Zealand in 1947, between the 28th June and the 19th July.
During their only previous Confederations Cup participation in 1997, South Africa became the first team to lose a Confederations Cup match despite scoring three goals, in the 4-3 defeat by Uruguay. Other teams to have lost by the same scoreline in subsequent editions are Brazil, against Mexico in 1999, and both Australia and Mexico against Germany in 2005.
New Zealand's narrow 4-3 defeat at the hands of World Champions Italy on 10 June 2009 in Atteridgeville, on the outskirts of Pretoria, is the first time that the All Whites have scored three goals against top European opposition.
A 3-1 win over Georgia in 2006 and a 3-0 victory against Israel in 1985 were the only other two matches where the Kiwis scored three goals against a European team.
Among the 2009 Confederations Cup teams, New Zealand played the least amount of matches (13) in the period following the World Cup 2006. With their 2008 victory in the Oceanian Nations Cup, however, New Zealand equalled Australia's record of four continental titles.
To date, the only win for a New Zealand men's team in a Fifa final competition remains the 2-1 win over Poland in the 1999 Fifa U-17 World Championship.
Seven Wellington Phoenix players will be at the Fifa Confederations Cup, making the New Zealand-based Australian A-League outfit the tournament's best-represented club.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
