African Roundup

Egypt's Hassan eyes 161st cap against Trinidad and Tobago

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -- A digest of soccer stories from Africa around in recent days:

EGYPT

Veteran striker Hossam Hassan is expected to earn his 161st international cap for Egypt on Wednesday after an absence of more than two years.

The 37-year-old has been included in the squad for the friendly against Trinidad and Tobago in Cairo and is expected to get his first run in the national team since the 2002 African Nations Cup finals in Mali.

Hassan won his first cap against Norway in September, 1985 and played at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

He has scored two winning goals in recent league matches for Zamalek on his return to the team after a long-standing dispute with club management, leading to his inclusion in the Egypt squad by caretaker coach Fathi Mabrouk.

The match is to be watched by Italian Marco Tardelli, appointed at the weekend as the new coach of Egypt.

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ALGERIA

New national coach Robert Wasiege will take charge of the Algerian side from Thursday, federation officials said on Monday.

The Belgian, in charge of his country's national team at the 2002 World Cup finals, has signed a four-year deal with the Algerian federation, replacing Rabah Saadane.

Wasiege is the second Belgian in two years to be appointed as Algeria's coach. His compatriot George Leekens quit last July after just five months in charge.

Wasiege had been working at Charleroi in Belgium and has also coached Standard Liege and Portugal's Sporting Lisbon.

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NIGERIA

The deciding match in the qualifiers for Africa's sole place at the women's soccer tournament at this year's Olympic Games has been postponed for the second time until Tuesday, officials said on Monday.

A stomach bug has affected 12 of the South African squad, who were due to meet Nigeria in Abuja last Friday. Three had been taken to hospital with acute food poisoning, the South African Football Association said.

The match was postponed until Sunday and then postponed again when South Africa said they could only field eight fit players if the game went ahead on Sunday, as ordered by FIFA.

Officials said the match must be played on Tuesday. Nigeria are heavily fancied to win after a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Pretoria earlier this month.

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NAMIBIA

Namibian club Tigers have replaced their coach after he left them midway through a match last month to help commentate an African Nations Cup match on Namibian television, officials in Windhoek said at the weekend.

Jakes Amaning, a part-time commentator and players' agent, has been replaced as Tigers' coach after the incident.

Originally from Ghana, Amaning had been helping out at the Windhoek club on a part-time basis.

He upset officials when he left at half-time of a premier league match against Black Africa to do studio commentary on the live feed from the Nations Cup finals in Tunisia.

Tigers' new coach is Rusten Mogane, a former Namibian national team coach.

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