Pyramids and Al-Ahly are preparing for their summit with two victories.
Egyptian League leaders Pyramids and their rivals Al-Ahly continued their series of victories that reached 14 and 12 in a row this season, by defeating Al-Ittihad of Alexandria 4-0 and Talaea El Geish 2-0, respectively, in the 30th stage.
With these two victories for the two most prominent teams, the 11-point difference between Pyramids (68 from 27 matches) and Al-Ahly (57 from 23 matches) remained the same, before their anticipated game in a postponed match from the 14th stage next Friday at Cairo Stadium. They will face each other again on July 22 at the Air Defense Stadium in the 31st stage.
In the first match, South African player Fakhri Lakay (27), Mohamed Hamdi (47), Democratic Congolese player Fiston Mayele (58), and Mahmoud Abdel Hafeez (69) scored four goals for Pyramids.
In the second match, substitute Amr Al-Sulayya (50) and Palestinian player Wissam Abu Ali (54) scored for Al-Ahly.
There is no doubt that the outcome of the upcoming summit will play a role in determining the champion of the current edition of the Egyptian League.
Al-Ahly coach Marcel Kohler, in consultation with his assistants, began working on a special program for the upcoming Pyramids match to determine the training doses and technical and tactical exercises that the team needs to prepare them well before this critical confrontation. This includes watching a number of videos of the sky blue team to analyze their style and the winning cards in their squad during this period.
Al-Ahly realizes that the Pyramids match is important in the “Red Giant’s” journey to correct their path in the league table by winning all their matches to rise to the top of the competition and maintain the local title after winning the African title.
Kohler will work to correct the mistakes made by his players during the Talaea match to ensure a new victory over Pyramids as part of the plan to regain first place in the league table after playing the postponed matches.
Mayele’s participation with Pyramids against Al-Ittihad sparked a lot of controversy, as some specialized (unofficial) websites concerned with player statistics in the Egyptian League highlighted that he received 3 yellow cards, the last of which was against Smouha, which means that he should have been suspended for the match against the Alexandria team.
However, Ahmed Zaher, the managing director of the Pyramids team, confirmed that Mayele received only two warnings, and did not receive a yellow card in the last match against Talaea El Geish.
Television cameras captured referee Ibrahim Nour El-Din raising a yellow card in the face of Mayele, but the picture was deceptive, as there were only two warnings for Karim Hafez and Ahmed Tawfiq, according to what Zaher mentioned in his statements.
Mayele is expected to be ready to play Pyramids’ next match against Al-Ahly after avoiding the third yellow card in the confrontation with Al-Ittihad.
