From December 2019 to September 2020, Patrice Carteron’s short spell with Zamalek witnessed many events, not only in terms of tournaments but other things.
The French coach’s career with the white knight ended with a personal decision from him, after he paid the penalty clause and left, rejecting any attempts to keep him.
283 days is the period between Patrice Carteron’s debut and last game, from December 4 to September 13. And 31 matches, and we remind you all of February, which everyone was afraid of, but ended with celebrations that will not be forgotten by the Zamalek fans.
What did Carteron do in that short period that also saw his contract renewal? FilGoal.com monitors for you through the following report everything that happened in the files of the first team with the French coach.
Egyptian League
Carteron took over the coaching of Zamalek, succeeding Milutin Seridovic, “Micho”, starting in the seventh round, before that, Zamalek had lost once from Enppi, tied against Club Egypt, won 3 games, and did not come to face Al-Ahly in February.
At the same time, Al-Ahly had won the first 7 confrontations, which made its score 21 points. While the balance of Zamalek after winning against Pyramids in the first matches the Frenchman attended in the Egyptian League, with a score of 2-0, was 13 points.
After that, Zamalek lost directly from the army, 3-2, and tied with Smouha, El Entag El Harby and Wadi Degla in the first round.
During the first round of the Carteron period, Zamalek scored 24 points, and a total of 34 points from 17 games.
At the same time, Al-Ahly, the leaders, had scored 51 points, considering the comparison between the first and second places in the ranking table as a competitor for the title.
The difference in the first round was 17 points.
The beginning of the second round was with a draw with Al Ittihad of Alexandria, then the victory against the clearing and the draw with Masr Club, and there is another tie with Smouha and one loss from the Arab Contractors.
Zamalek defeated Al-Ahly 3-1, as well as against Pyramids with a score of 2-0, whether it was the first or its opponent for second place if the title was decided, the white knight succeeded with Carteron to outperform them.
In the second round and until his last match against El Entag El Harby, Zamalek scored 21 points, and in total, with Carteron, he scored 45 points from the seventh to the 27th round.
In the same period, Al-Ahly, the leaders of the standings, scored 54 points, meaning that the difference since Carteron’s arrival to coach the team between the two parties is 9 points. Pyramids, who was coached by Sebastian Desbar and Ante Catchic in the same period, scored 33 points, and the Arab Contractors with Imad Al-Nahhas as a competitor for second place in the same period scored 35 points.
In total, Carteron fought with Zamalek in the league 21 games, winning 13, drawing 6 and losing twice, and his team scored 31 goals, received 14 and scored 45 points.
Carteron’s departure came and Al-Ahly were two points away from winning the Egyptian League title for the current season for the 42nd time in its history.
Egypt cup
Carteron played a lone match against Al Sharqiya, winning 3-1.
Egyptian Super Cup
A single championship that brought together Carteron with Zamalek at Al-Ahly Club in the Egyptian Super Cup on February 20, and Zamalek won a penalty shootout with a score of 4-3.
African Super Cup
As a champion of the Confederation, Zamalek participated in the African Super Cup to face Tunisia’s Esperance, against whom he fought 3 matches in a very short period.
On February 14th, 6 days before facing Al-Ahly in the local Super Cup, Zamalek succeeded with Carteron in winning the title 3-1 with a very distinguished performance.
African Champions League
One of Carteron’s most notable achievements with Zamalek was the leadership of the team to reach the semi-finals of the African Champions League.
The French coach led the team in 7 matches, won 3, drew 3, lost only once, and his team scored 8 goals and received 3.
In the group stage, Zamalek never lost with Carteron, he won against Peremero de Augusto, tied with him, won against ZESCO United, tied with him, and tied with Mazembe.
In the Champions League quarter-finals and another confrontation with Esperance at the end of February, Zamalek managed to win again 3-1 in the first leg, and in the second leg on March 6, they lost 1-0, to qualify in the end to face Moroccan Raja in the semi-final.
Players level development
One of the important files is the development of the level of players and their perfect use that allows the team to get the greatest possible benefit from them, which happened specifically with the duo Ashraf Bencharki and Ahmed Sayed Zizou, and not only they, but the line and method of defense of Zamalek as a whole, how is that?
In the first 6 rounds of the league, Bencharki did not have a clear imprint with Zamalek, only a goal against Masr Club, sitting on the bench against Al-Ittihad, and playing a limited number of minutes and then his absence in front of Enppi.
Carteron’s arrival transformed Bencharki to an important tool in the team’s play industry, he made 5 goals and scored one goal in the league, scored two goals in the Egypt Cup and also scored two goals in the African Super Cup.
The same was repeated with Zizou, with Micho participating in the league in 6 confrontations, scoring two goals and making two goals, but his brilliance did not last long with the team and he became dispersed between the centers in which he participated to compensate for the absentees.
With Carteron, Zizou has completely transformed, even talking passionately about his coach.
“I tell Carton that I will never let you down, no matter what position you put me in.” – Zizou.
As for Zamalek’s defense, in 12 games with Micho, the team conceded 12 goals, while with Carteron, it received 22 goals in 31 games.
With the Serbian coach, Zamalek changed his formation, which he started with a lot, as well as the way of playing, with Carteron the stability of the formation and the method of entering the new elements into his ranks was very good, even dealing with absences was cautious.
Amir Azmi Mujahid, the former assistant coach of Zamalek, told FilGoal.com about why Micho did not succeed and Carteron succeeded with the team: “The consistency of the formation was placed under 100 lines. Micho succeeded in the cup when the formation was fixed, and then he played every match with a formation, which was reflected in the results. As for Carteron, it is stable.” The composition increased harmony, along with realism in most of its changes. “
Pushing young people
Last July, Amir Mortada Mansour, the general supervisor of football in Zamalek, said that the participation of young players in the matches was a plan agreed upon with Technical Director Patrice Carteron two months ago.
“Carteron is a bold, disciplined coach who knows the best time to give young people a chance, and this is what is happening now,” he said.
A number of the team’s youth were present, such as Alaa Yahya, Saif Farouk Jaafar, Hatem Muhammad, Muhammad Husam, Yassin Mari, Hussam Abdel-Majid, and the most important trio who participated in great numbers, Hussam Ashraf, Usama Faisal and Ahmed Eid.
Hatem Mohamed, the left-back, played a long way against Masr, and Mohamed Hossam, the midfielder, also played a long way in the same match, and Yassin Mari played in the same match as a center back throughout the match, and also participated 10 minutes against Smouha as a midfielder.
Hossam Abdel-Majeed, the center of the youth defense, played the Al-Jaish and Samouha matches for a few minutes, 11 and 17 minutes, respectively.
As for the promising winger Hossam Ashraf, he participated in 7 matches, during which he scored a goal with a total of 175 minutes, the same number of matches that striker Osama Faysal participated in, who scored a single goal in the summit match against Al-Ahly with a total of 145 minutes participation.
Ahmed Eid, the right-back, has participated in 9 matches in all competitions so far, with a total of 791 minutes of participation.
The French coach presented to the team a number of young people who could be relied upon in the final stages of the league if the second-place struggle was resolved, and then the main players were rested for the difficult task of Africa.
The ambiance of the dressing room
Reflecting the crisis that occurred with Micho, regarding the Serbian coach informing his players of his illness. (See the full story)
And the series of results that ended with his trip, Carteron succeeded in winning his players and uniting behind his goals quickly. The French coach began his career in the league with a victory against Pyramids, he repeated it again in the second round, as well as victory against Al-Ahly in the Super Cup with penalties and in the league.
At every press conference, Carteron would come out to speak proudly of his players. The most prominent was after winning the African Super Cup.
“I am proud of my players, the champions, after a historic match against Esperance, and in front of an opponent who has not lost in 15 consecutive matches.”
“What my team offered is my history.” – Carteron.
The French coach won two championships in a short time and led the team for a short time and was two steps away from reaching the Champions League final if he had surpassed hope. But he chose to end the campaign a month before the first confrontation between the two parties, and this was all he had offered with the White Knight.
– .
