The Hand of God!

No it's not the Maradona goal vs England in 1986. It's worse (well not really). It's the Michael Eneramo goal against Ahly in the first minute of the second leg of the African Champions League Semi- Final. It was a blatant hand ball. The referee Mr. Lamptey had to be blind to have missed it.

Don't believe me check it out....

There is no doubt in my mind that the referee was one of the worst I have ever seen in a football game. He allowed a clear hand ball to stand, gave too few yellow cards to Esperance (Taragy) players compared to Ahly and allowed the game to be played with just 1 ball. Ahly players were scrambling for the ball all the time, but the there were no extra balls and the ball boys never tried to get the balls back onto the pitch. Taragy players continued to fall to ground in every occasion and to top it off the referee gave 3 minutes of added time in the first half and 5 in the second. The referee lost control of the game after allowing the hand ball to stand. Let's be clear though, at the end of the day we lost the game and the referee did not make us lose it....

Yes the referee had a role but lets take a look how the players applied themselves in the game. A team with Ahly's experience should not lose control like they did after conceding just one goal very early on. The players went mad with rage and frankly almost every single foul the referee called against Ahly was correct and every single yellow card was deserved and don't pretend you are blind...Barakat had to go. The red card was a must, raising your hand against your opponent and smacking him on the face (I don't care if it is a touch or a punch..this is not MMA!!!) is a sending off offense. Yes the Esperance player made a meal out of it, but a lot of players do that. The mad men of Ahly were undone by their own in ability to control themselves. Control and discipline stems from the coach first and the players second.

Never have I seen an Ahly team lack that much of sportsmanship , rude, aggressive and frankly not for the first time. It happened in the league and against the Algerian team. Sadly they reminded me of Zamalek...enough said! It is not the first time we have played against a team and a referee. This is common in Africa so lets not be naive about it and pretend that we are heroes and that the referee robbed us of our dream. Have Egypt and Ahly fans lost their memories? Do none of you remember that Ahly scored a hand ball goal in Cairo? Take a look at how the Tunisian team carried themselves after the goal. They aggressively voiced their concern about the goal, however no one was red carded and they continued to play their brand of football even after conceding a second goal, until they managed a priceless away goal! This is how Ahly should have responded, sadly Badry had turned us into grunts! I recall us playing in the African Cup with Manuel Jose against Enyemba in Nigeria. The referee and linesman failed to flag the forward of the Nigerian team, although he was 5 yards offside throughout the game. My friends and I even called him " Mr. Offsido". How did we respond? we played ball and beat them 1-0. Do you remember losing the Champions league in Cairo 1-3 against Etoile de Sahel (El Negm al Sa7elly). We had 2 legitimate claims of penalties denied and Emad El Nahass was red carded. Did we turn violent? Lose our cool? Attack other players and the referee? No we took it like men and played football.....Barakat would not have dared attempt such a prank then and he should be ashamed of himself! As for Hossam Ashour it seems he has lost his mind and is lucky he was not red carded, twice or possibly arrested for assault:P

Refereeing mistakes and bad tempers aside, did we deserve to win? In my opinion we did not! We had 90minutes to score a goal that would have been enough to push us through but we failed to create anything. Yes going down to 10 men made it difficult but we were playing an average team in my opinion who did not even press on for a second goal against a broken and impotent Ahly team. We managed 2 shots for the whole of the 90minutes. 2 shots can you believe it? One of which was a free kick!!! We managed just 2 crosses from open play, yet we blame the referee for the loss. How the mighty have fallen. How do you expect the team to win with a coach that will not address his short comings? Hossam El Badry had the audacity to comment that the result of the game was predetermined. Couldn't el Taragy say the same thing regarding the Cairo game? Instead of focusing on creating chances and playing football he focused his energy on anger towards the referee. Our only game plan was long balls from the keeper towards Geddo, who is not a target man by trade (although I think he applied himself brilliantly and was our best player on the pitch) and one legged Moody Fadl who is a target man by trade but has the strength of an 80 year old grandmother. When we needed a goal we got on a defensive midfielder in Shehab, I was expecting Shawky frankly LOL! Why not an attacking player like Shoukry? I used to think Badry is useless but frankly I think he is more out of his depth than anything else. The pressure that comes with managing a club with the pedigree of Ahly is too much for him (Zamalek might suite him:P). We need someone else.

Finally were was Abou Trieka in all of this? He was no were to be seen. He was not involved in any argument or in the game itself. He looks to me like a man disheartened by how his club is applying itself! Allah yemaseek bel khier ya Manuel ya Jose (May good things come to you Jose) and R.I.P nady el 2khla2 wa 2al mabde2 (R.I.P Club of virtues of sound manners)

The most Ridiculous Dive Ever

This is insane can't believe it's been given

Thanks to my dear friend Dr. Firas for sharing this

The Price We must Pay!

Yesterday Egypt was shocked by a 1-0 defeat to Niger in Niamey and now lay bottom of Group G with 1 point from 2 games in CAN 2012 qualifiers. Myself and a few others I have talked with were not!

It is common knowledge for anyone who knows me or has ever read this blog that I am no fan of Hassan Shehata, Egypt's coach. However, his technical inadequacy aside, he has done an unbelievable job by leading Egypt to winning 3 consecutive Nations Cups. A feat unlikely to be rivaled for sometime to come. His major let down was his inability to take us to the World Cup in virtually the easiest Group around, but for some stroke of luck he was made a hero due circumstances surrounding the match with Algeria.

Love him or hate him, it's time for Shehata to go and for Egypt to move on. Not because of his inability to change games but because he has nothing to offer the team anymore. Yes I will always stick by the notion that he was never a coach or a tactician, only a motivator who happened to be lucky enough to lead the greatest ever footballing generation in Egypt. He did win stuff but what is happening now? Where did it all go wrong?

For me it seems he has become too arrogant for his own good. This was pointed out to me by a friend of my father's after the Sierra Leone game. He was spot on. In football as a coach it's OK to be arrogant. Look at Jose Mourinho, one of the most talented and successful coaches in a generation. He is so full of himself, you either love him or hate him, nothing in between. Manuel Jose arguably Ahly's greatest coach was arrogant too. Just ask any Zamalek fan or other Egyptian coaches! The difference between these men and Shehata is that for starters they had ability and more importantly never lost touch with the real reason they win....their players!

A coach is nothing without his players and the greatest managers like Sir Alex Ferguson are the ones who can get the best out of their players and keep them motivated so they can produce what they requires from them!

Shehata lost the plot. He was arrogant enough to think that by fielding a weakened inexperienced Egypt side against Sierra Leone he would still win. He was full of himself that he did not even care to study up on the strengths of the opposition. It seemed in Cairo we were playing a team from mars that we had no idea about. He also decided to change the formation that has brought him and Egypt huge success, 3-5-2 for some sort of a 4-4-2 with two very slow central defenders and ultimately paid the price. His arrogance did not stop here. After his medical staff deemed Amr Zaki and Shikabala unfit and they were dropped form the Egypt squad for a friendly. Hassan Shehata was incensed that 2 days later they were playing for their club Zamalek in the league, so he decided to drop them for the Leone game. His staff deemed them unfit yet he was mad at them?

Against Niger he continued his new trend. He again was clueless about the opposition and again decided to go for some sort of a 4-4-2 that was unsuccessful before! Captain Hassan seems to forget that football is not chess and it is not how you place players on the field that decides if you are attacking or defending, it's what you say to the players and the roles they are given that decides that. A 4-5-1 formation on paper looks very defensive but can be enthralling if turned to a 4-3-3 going forward. A formation is nothing but a number.

His selections were a bit weird with Abdel Fadil as right back for example. Sherif is a fantastic player but he has very limited international experience. With Abdel Shafy the left back it was the same way. A great player with limited experience. He continued not to select Egypt's greatest central midfielder Hossam Ashour because I think he deems him bad luck. (The only game he played under Shehata Egypt lost 4-1 or 4-0 in friendly vs Sudan). Regardless he lost the game and failed to control or influence the match form the touch line.

People automatically blame the players and the fact we need to inject new life into the squad and so on. This may be true and I agree the players have to share a part of the blame. Shehata tried to inject younger blood into the squad but possibly too soon. I do have another theory why the old guard is not performing well enough.

I said earlier that the players mainly won games for Shehata. The players were mainly from Ahly. OK Zamalek fans will automatically start arguing about this, but come on lets be realistic. In 2006 the squad had 7 out of 11 starters from Ahly. Hadary, Gomaa, Barakat, Abdel Wahab (R.I.P) Shawky, Abu Trieka and Meteb. In 2008 and 2010 it was a similar story. The Ahly players were living a golden age under Manuel Jose. Say what you like but Jose's influence on our victory's is not to be denied! He had instilled a winning mentality in his teams that was transferred with them when they played for their country. Even Zamalek, although not winning anything had decent coaches.

Take a look at things now. Look at both Ahly and Zamalek. They are playing extremely poorly. The main reason for Egypt's drop in form...."Al Hossamayen" or the Hossam's. Hossam El Badry and Hossam Hassan more so Badry. They have turned their teams into regular Joe teams. They are no longer the giants they once were. The Ahly players seem to play without purpose and when Moudy Fadl leads the line of Ahly and Egypt you know something is wrong. Both Ahly and Zamalek players are low on confidence and form

The end result in my opinion is that it seems extremely unlikely we are to qualify for the 2012 Africa Nations Cup and due to the new qualification system for 2013 we might find it very difficult to reach it either. On the up side if Shehata doesn't know when to quit like the likes of Algeria's Sadaan did and all respectable coaches do, Franz Beckenbauer left Germany after successive World Cup finals, the second of which he won.(but then again would you quit if you were making L.E 200,000, 30,000USD per month?). The Egyptian Federation should act and let him go and start right away looking for a well known foreign coach with a free hand to lead us to Brazil 2014. Shehata has done well for Egypt but it's time to move on, after all maybe this is a blessing in disguise and we can finally see Egypt in a World Cup!

The Hardest Man in Football?

Just finished reading this article by Early Doors on Eurosport about Roberto Mancini, excellent stuff...

Give it a look here

The punch line...."And with that Mancini got up, smashed a chair over a journalist's head and stormed out of the room."

LOL