WHAT AN INSANE RIDE! IT'S THE 3-STARS CUP! (FIFA 16)
Living on the Edge! Zamalek FC's Group Stage Goes to the Absolute Limit!
Let's recap the intro of the competition above! In this edition of the
3-Stars Cup,
Zamalek SC,
El Fares El Abyad (The White Knight) was set to test
Paris FC,
FK Austria Wien, and
FBC Melgar of Peru! In this tough group, following the format of
2 European,
1 South American and
1 team from Asia or Africa per group, Zamalek looked to progress, drawn against very interesting teams, each with their own unique identity and accomplishments! Let's get to know the teams a bit better!!
-
Paris FC, also known as
PFC, were founded in 1969. The club merged with Stade Saint-Germain to form PSG in 1970. In 1972, the club split from PSG and created their own identity. Even though they have spent most of their history in Amateur divisions while their counterparts have found success,
Paris FC still retains a loyal fanbase, and has risen to become an established
2nd Division team! They are looking to make some noise and make their presece felt in the
3-Stars Cup!
-
FK Austria Vienna's history has been much more successful, at least at the local level. Winners of
24 Austrian Bundesliga Titles, 27 Austrian Cups and 6 Supercups (these last two being national records). They also reached the
UEFA Cup Winners final in 1978 and the semifinals of the
European Cup the season after! They are considered one of the two biggest teams in Austria (along with their eternal rivals
SK Rapid Wien), and they both dispute the national Austrian Derby, the most passionate and popular match in the country!
Austria Vienna is ready to showcase their football!
-
FBC Melgar of
Perú are based in the Southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, "la ciudad blanca" (the white city, due to its architecture).
2-time Primera División Winners (1981 and 2015), as well as
1 Copa Perú (1971) and many regional titles,
Melgar is one of the more popular teams in Peru, particularly in their department of origin. They have made noise in
Copa Libertadores and Sudamericana lately, being one of the better
Peruvian sides in these international cups, and they are looking to repeat their success in the
3-Stars Cup!
- And finally, our protagonists,
ZAMALEK FC, winners of
14 Egyptian Premier Leagues, 28 Egyptian Cups, 5 CAF Champions Leagues, and 4 CAF Super Cups,
Zamalek have to be considered one of the
super giants of Africa! The Cairo Derby (against their eternal rivals
Al-Ahly, also a huge and highly accomplished team) is considered one of the most passionate in Africa and perhaps the world! Now, we are determined to show the world that
African Club Football has taken leaps and bounds and is ready to contest in the big stage! We are ready for what comes!
Groupstage 1:
We opened proceedings against
Austria Vienna, in front of an absolutely racuous crowd in
Cairo International Stadium! We started much better than the Austrians, going on the offensive right away, as our Montenegrin 30-year old Striker
Stefan Mugosa had a great chance in minute 8 which was stopped by the keeper! We were playing well on the wings, finding some nice crosses and going on some good runs, but a defensive error almost led to a score by
Vienna in minute 20! The first half wore on with
Vienna finding more of their footing, but when the whistle blew, it was 0-0. The second half opened in a similar fashion to the first, with
Zamalek pressing forward and almost getting a score by
Bencharki as soon as the half started, followed by a corner header. We were keeping the pressure on! We continued playing much better than
Vienna throughout the second half, creating many good chances from the wings and crosses (some of which were headed away by their defenders), and were outshooting them without being able to get the ball in! The match seemed to be headed to a somewhat frustrating 0-0 until...... Oh no!!!!
The Austrians score in minute 90+3!! Duricin with an absolutely brilliant run on the counterattack after a
Zamalek corner, has a great individual play, eludes the
Egyptians and scores an absolute screamer from outside the box!! And it's the literal last play of the game.... We have lost a smash and grab at the last minute, and things went from "slighly frustrating" to "heartbreaking" in an instant!! Nothing to show for this first match, final result,
Zamalek 0-
1 Vienna, no points in an otherwise solid performance. But solid performances don't win matches alone. We needed to score goals, and this as far from being a good start.
Groupstage 2:
Groupstage 2 was once again at home, but this time against
Paris FC! After the last-second disappointing defeat at the hands of
Vienna, we were determined to bounce back against another direct rival! The crowd was really on for this matchup, given that a loss here would've really hurt our qualification chances, and this match
started off in the worst possible way after a foul outside the box led to a direct free kick laser shot from
Gueye, a perfectly placed shot and there was nothing our keeper could do,
it was 0-1 to Paris after only min 3! Things didn't start off on the right foot for us, but we couldn't let spirits be down.. There was plenty of time to recover.. But
Paris was still bombing away and dominating us in the early going. But we slowly found our footing! After a few offside calls against us, we were attackiing more
until in minute 28.. Bencharki!! A beautiful top right hand corner bomb from outside and
we equalize!! Going into halftime, it was 1-1!! The second half started similar to the first, with
Paris on the offensive, but us containing them well.. But after scoring the first goal of the Cup, we weren't satisfied! We wanted to go for the win and after much insisting,
we finally broke through in min 67, with Mugosa setting up Shammas for our second goal!!! It was 2-1 Zamalek!! And we almost scored a third, afer
Mugosa's shot hit the side post in min 83!! The final whistle blew, and it was
a great comeback with for us for our first 3 points of the Cup!!
Groupstage 3:
It was now time to go on the road, all the way to the other side of the world in
Peru!! Wearing our visitor blue kits this time, and playing in historical
Melgar Stadium in the white city of Arequipa, this was a great performance for us as
we thoroughly dominated Melgar, featuring
two great goals from our Montenegrin striker,
Stefan Mugosa!! We scored in the very first play of the game, on a great through ball from
Shammas to Mugosa (They are really understanding each other, these two!!
A classic #10-#9 connection). Our second goal came from a great run from
Bencharki (he is proving to be our most effective winger so far, speedy and incisive), crossing over to
Mugosa who finished acrobatically in the box!!
2-0 in min 55!! Not much else to say about this match, except that we completely dominated them in their grounds,
outshooting them 10-2 in a match that could've ended up with a much more bloated scoreline! After the initial misstep against
Vienna,
we had come back admirably with 2 straight victories! The table looked like this afer Matchday 4.
In second place! Nothing's decided yet with 3 matches left to go but a good recovery!
Groupstage 4:
, Spirits were high as we moved on the
Stade Charlety in Paris, riding on the momentum of two straight victories, we were feeling good about our chances in this match. Against a backdrop of
passionate blue Paris supporters,
Zamalek was back to its
familiar white and red kit as the whistle blew!
But this was not our night. The first half ended
1-0 against us as
Gueye scored off a nicely timed header off a
Lopez cross in min 35, and it was all downhill from there.
Paris' second goal came in minute 60 off a second header, this time it was
Boutaib with a jumping strike off the
Name cross and it was
2-0, and only 3 miinutes later, in min 63,
the Parisians would make it 3-0, as
Bernauer scored from way out, handily beating our goalkeeper with the powerful shot.
The match was out of reach for us, as a
fourth goal would come in min 69 (Lopez with the header off a Gory cross), in a match that featured
3 aerial goals by
Paris. Twenty minutes left in the match, and the score was
4-0, a humiliating defeat for us made only slightly more palatable by an Ahadad score in min 88 off the post which made it
4-1 as the final whistle blew. Paris completely dominated us in this one, more shots, more possession, better shot accuracy, and perhaps most tellingly, their pass accuracy was
86% compared to our
71%, very low. A rude awakening in our return to face a European team.
Groupstage 5:
As we approached
groupstage 5, we were still sitting in second place despite the
Paris debacle: Paris led the group with 9 points, followed by
Zamalek with 6,
Vienna with 4, and
Melgar with 4. We were set to visit
Vienna next,
and a win here would've guaranteed us a spot in the second round. Going to Generali Arena, the entire stadium was painted
Vienna purple, quite a sight to see, as their fans really came out in droves seeing as a win would put them right in contention. We knew this was an absolutely crucial match and
we came out aggressively, with two corner kicks and two chances in the first 10 minutes. In min 15,
Vienna had their first real chance of the match, as a bad defensive mistake by us left an open space in the box, thankfully Fischer shot it to the moon! In min 23,
Vienna opened the score with one of the best goals of the tounament, as
Jukic connected with
Branunoder who scored a one-time shot in the top left corner, beating our keeper from afar, and it was
1-0 Vienna! In min 31, as we moved our lines forward,
Shammas was brought down in the box by an
Austrian defender in what I thought
should've been a PK in our favor.. But the match moved on and as the first half drew to a close, it was
Vienna who had the advantage. We tried to come out more aggressively in the 2nd half, but in min 60,
a foolish foul by our defender Elwensh in the box led to a
PK in their favor, which Duricin calmly converted to make it 2-0, completely wrongfooting our GK. We desperately had to make something happen, and i
n min 84, Mugosa tapped in a shot by Shammas to make it 2-1, but in the end,
it was too little too late, as
Vienna escaped with the 2-1 victory, in a match were a questionable call did not overshadow the fact that it was a real, important loss for us.
We had missed our chance to qualify!
Groupstage 6:
This streak of
2 consecutive losses put is in quite a
difficult situation going into our last match against
Melgar in
Cairo International Stadium. We had relinquished our second-place spot to
Vienna, and
our desiny was not in our hands anymore. Vienna was hosting
Paris at home, and if they won their last match, this would ensure qualification for them and would end our chances, as
Paris had 10 points (qualification ensured),
Vienna had 7 and
we had 6 points going into our final match. Even
Melgar had a chance, as a win coupled with a win by
Paris would qualify them. It was definitely
the day of truth, the moment that would define everything, as our entire destiny was riding on this last matchday. As expected,
Cairo International Stadium was a sea of white and red. Even though we didn't depend on ourselves anymore, we were determined to tilt the scale in our favor as much as possible and go for the win! But
Melgar was also fighting for qualification and they started off playing well, defending much better and creating more chances early on. As the first half drew on, we started playing a bit better,
but a cagey first 45 minutes ended 0-0, as we had a couple of nice chances by our right winger
Zizo, and a few good crosses and through balls, but could not break the deadlock, although we were the aggressors. As the first half ended, it was
0-0, while
Vienna and
Paris were also tied 1-1. (
This result did not benefit us, as we were out of the Cup at halftime!) The second half started, and in min 51, a fantasy run by
Hamed Shammas almost resulted in a score for us, as our young
#10 star dribbled deftly in the box, eluding several
Peruvian defenders very skillfully, but his left-footed shot was saved by
Cáceda.
We almost scored!!
Knowing that this result was keeping us out of the cup,
we went on the offensive. The minutes wore on and even though we were clearly outplaying
Melgar,
the goal didn't come! In min 54, a connection between
Mugosa and
Shammas almost resulted in a goal as
Shammas was really displaying his dribbling skills and shot the ball almost in the same spot as the earlier chance but once again, it was
Cáceda saving, as he punched it away to a corner! Yet in the very next play off the corner,
a scramble in the box resulted in our first score!! Two blocked shots resulted in
Bencharki stopping the ball in the air and one-timing the powerful shot
for the amazing goal!!!!!! Finally we were able to break through the Peruvian defense,
and it was 1-0 Zamalek in our 10th shot of the game, coming in minute 55!!!!!!
But
Zamalek was not out of the woods just yet. As we had no idea how
Vienna vs
Paris was going (
besides being aware of the 1-1 result at halftime), we were determined to keep pressing on to ensure our lead, and that is exactly what we did, only 4 minutes later!!
Mugosa, to Shammas, to Abdel Aziz and it's Abdel Aziz with the inside out right handed shot to beat Cáceda in the box for the 2-0 lead in min 59!! Manager Millossobek now could finally breathe again, as a
2-goal lead with 30 minutes left seemed to be safe..
Until in extra time (min 90), in a nicely constructed counterattack by Melgar,
Vidales connected with Reyna and the Peruvian side scored (in only their third shot of the match!) It seemed that no lead was safe and that drama would accompany us to the end..
Now we were only leading by one goal, and we endured some really nervy couple of minutes as
we were finally able to protect the lead and as the final whistle blew, the final score was 2-1 Zamalek!!!! Would it be enough to qualify us to the next phase??
The
Footballing Gods had smiled on us, as
Paris had scored a
second half goal and beaten Vienna in Austria!!!!! As the
players,
Manager Millossobek, and the
fans saw the score of the
Vienna-
Paris game, it could be said that the drama and nervous anticipation was finally over!! We could exhale as
we qualified to the Round of 16 of the 3-Stars Cup!!!!! This was a heart-thumping finale to a topsy-turvy roller coaster of a group stage, but when it was all said and done, it's
Paris and
Zamalek that go through the next phase!!!! And who would we be facing next in the
Round of 16?? None other than the Bolivian Giants,
The Strongest of La Paz!!
"I have to admit, I was a
nervous wreck throughout the match! But I couldn't let my emotions show to'o much and had to
stick to the gameplan. The feeling of not being 100% in control of your own footballing destiny filled me with uncertainty, but in the end, we were able to prevail! All I knew is that, no matter what happened in the
Vienna-
Paris match in
Austria, we had to leave it all out on the pitch and try to secure the win. Needless to say,
I am extremely proud of my team, being able to bounce back after the
back to back defeats in Europe to rebound in Match 6 against a very tough opponent!! All I can say is, The White Knight has shown their mettle, and now we not only have a whole city, but a whole nation behind us and an entire continent to represent!! We are here for
Cairo, we are here for
Egypt, and for
African Football, and we are determined to show the world what we are made of!!"
Stay tuned to the next edition of Millossobek's League Stories! 
Note: 
! Curious to see how challenging will Shanghai Port be!