Egypt salvage point, earn hosts’ respect

Long before the final whistle blew, the Mexican fans began booing the local side, impatient with their team’s complacency after taking a 2-0 halftime lead.

“It’s logical for them to react that way,” Mexican coach Manuel Lapuente said of the crowd’s reaction. “It’s up to us to try harder and do something to please them.”

In an earlier group a match yesterday Bolivia and Saudia Arabia played to a lackluster 0-0 draw. Mexico leads the group with four points after two games but all four sides have a shot at the semifinal with one match each remaining.

The group B teams, which resume play today in Guadalajara, are Brazil, Germany,the United States and New Zealand.

Mexico opened the scoring in the 15th minute when Pavel Pardo, fed into the box by a flicked on ball from Cuauhtemoc Blanco, slammed a right-footed shot that glanced off the crossbar and into the back of the net defended by Essam el Hadary.

In the 26th minute Jose Manuel Abundis scored his second goal of the tournament with a glancing header off a corner kick from German Villa.

Mexico appeared coasting to semifinals berth in the FIFA tournament when Egypt’s Yasser Radwan was sent off at the 64th minute after receiving his second yellow card from South Korean referee Young Joo Kim.

But the Egyptians refused to fold. Hassan Ahmed slotted home a close-range shot after Mexican keeper Jorge Campos failed to clear a free kick that rebounded off the crossbar.

With the impatient Mexican crowd booing the home team, Egypt got the equaliser at the 85th minute when Samir Ibrahim rifled in a free kick inside the near post from 30 metres past a poorly positioned three-manwall.

“In the second half there were some changes in tactics,” Egyptian coach Mahmoud al-Gohary told reporters. “The team’s spirits were greatly lifted.”

In the earlier match, neither Bolivia nor Saudia Arabia seemed capable of mounting a serious threat to their opponent’s goal.

The closest either team came to scoring came at the 90th minute when the Saudi’s Ibrahim al Shahrani smacked a close-range header off the near post.

Meanwhile, the Bolivians were unable to puncture the Saudi defence that was obliterated by Mexico on Sunday in the Saudi’s 5-1 loss to the host team. Egypt tied Bolivia 2-2 on Sunday.