Random News

I've been away for the last month or so mainly due to Ramadan. Frankly it's difficult enough to work let alone blog as well. Hopefully now I can be more active.

I thought I'd start off with some random local and international news.

Apparently Roma's former first choice keeper Doni was the one to recommend the man who replaced him, current number one Julio Sergio, to the club. Doni is now the third choice keeper. I guess that's why they say silence is golden.

Zamalek technical director or whatever the translation of "Modeer Kora" is, Ibrahim Hassan has discovered the reason for his teams poor run of results. Black Magic. No it's not a typo, he believes a scratch in the wall of the clubs changing room revealed incantations of some sort. Yeah that makes perfect sense. The outrageous answer would be that his brother, Egyptian Legend Hossam Hassan, the manager of Zamalek sucks.

On the other hand Hossam Hassan blamed the referee and his players. He also proceeded to blame Israel, Global Warming and the Panda:P

Yesterday's Champions League game between Real Madrid and Ajax was entertaining enough with Madrid grabbing a deserved 2-0 win thanks to Higauin. What was shocking however was the status of the pitch. For those of you who don't know Real Madrid had recently captured the groundsman of Arsenal for a substantial fee. He is hailed to be one of the best around. I guess there might be a job opening at Madrid if the pitch continues to look like that. Check out Paul Burgess's story here

Egypt's Assistant coach Shawky Ghareeb admitted that there were selection mistakes following Egypt's humiliating draw with Sierra Leone in Cairo. Finally, I thought. An Egyptian owning up to his mistakes... he then followed by blaming the players lack of fitness. There you go that's better.

It was never really Shawky or Hassan Shehata's fault it was the player fitness. At the end of the season it's exhaustion, away from home it's the referee or the pitch and when all else fails blame Algeria.

Speaking of Algeria. Rabeh Sadaan resigned as coach of Algeria following a similar humiliating draw vs Tanzania at home. The man who beat Hassan Shehata to send his country to the World Cup admitted he had nothing more to offer and resigned. I bet I'd die before I see a government employee of any kind resign let alone Egypt's national coach. Then again why would he. He is getting paid more than 100 Thousand Egyptians pounds a month and does not even care enough to attend league games. He actually watches them on the tele!

How do I know? He said so. A couple of months back the National team staff refrained from adding new players to a player gathering because a lot of the games were not aired on TV....duh!

According to a friend of mine the mystery regarding AC Milan's spending spree is out in the open. Berlusconi after selling the Van Gogh "Poppy Flower" painting reportedly worth 55 million dollars (Stolen from Egypt last month) can now afford to buy players for Milan again. God Bless you Minister Farouk Hosny and your broken 50 dollar security cameras. Forza Milan!

Finally I would like to congratulate Zamalek fans on the upcoming return of Mortada

Mansour. God Bless him.

Egypt vs Algeria: Destruction

Great teams rise for glory after getting knocked down. I can say it whole hearted that we are indeed a great team. Egypt yesterday reached their third successive CAN final after thrashing Algeria by 4 goals to nil. The victory itself was great but it was made even sweater by the way Egypt played and the manner by which Algeria behaved.

It was a virtuoso performance from the Egyptian team and it was obvious the team as a unit were very calm and collected from the start. A quality that is crucial to winning such games. Tactically we were spot on too. The Algerians were frankly a disgrace to football and sportsmanship. Belhadj and Chaouchi come to mind. The keeper should have been red carded twice. He attempted to head-but the referee after he allowed a penalty. The Algerians wanted it to be retaken for some reason? He later got his marching orders after lashing at Egypt striker Geddo. Belhadj apparently was furious after Zidan had danced around him for the second goal in addition to Mohammady being a bit showy. He attempted a nightmare double tackle on the latter and was rightly red carded for his efforts. Frankly this team was very disappointing to me. When they beat Egypt they were all over the place with comments of how they were better. Bougherra even added that Egypt should "Shut up". I think we shut him up real good. In defeat they turned into thugs. What a shame that they get to go to the World cup and not Egypt.

Egypt lined up as they did against Cameroon with the only difference being that in this game Algeria were sitting back hoping to hit Egypt on the break with long balls behind the defense. For once Shehata and Shawky Ghareeb got their tactics right. Egypt were patient in their approach always playing the ball to feet and using Mohammady on the right flank to produce great width to devastating effect. He was ever so dangerous and had the better of Belhadj for pace and skill. He also forced him to defend deeper and limited his forward runs. In the rare occasions that he did attack Egypt had Mohammday, Ahmed Hassan and usually Fathalla to close him down and stop his runs. It was obvious the manager had done his homework as Algeria's danger came from two sources Belhadj which was neutralized and Karim Ziani. Karim was ever present in the Algerian win against Cote D'Ivoire, he wanted the ball all the time and provided an outlet for his teammates then proceeded to distribute play brilliantly. Not this time. Egypt pressurized Algeria high up the pitch by two or three players. Ziani especially was always closed down all over the pitch. It was not haphazard, we pressured them at key points and always kept their defenders on their toes. Ahmed Fathi was particularly impressive doing that and in plugging the hole between the midfield and the defense. Egypt contained Algeria even before the red cad and their only hope of scoring came from set pieces and corners. Hadary had just one save to make for the hole game which shows you how solid and aware defensively Egypt was. Hadary surprisingly was very solid in the air too.

Going forward we looked ever so dangerous. We passed the ball well until openings appeared and we would always be able to find an outlet. This was due to a number of great players. Mohammady to me was exceptional not because of his runs but because of his ability to always find space for himself. His excellent wing play was wonderful and he always provided an outlet for his teammates even when Algeria knew it was coming.

In Meteb and Zidan Egypt have one of the most beautiful attacking partnerships in African football. The forward runs of Meteb are brilliant in my opinion. He does not just run, he runs with purpose and in space between defenders. He also has the ability to arch his runs to create the needed space between defenders. This gives his fellow midfielders, especially players like Ahmed Hassan and Ghali. the option to attempt the direct through ball from deep. He is also tireless, will chase every ball, hold it up and pressurize defenders. Yesterday he showed great ability when he latched onto the mistake of the Algerian defense and controlled the bouncing ball with his head then his feet to ultimately force the penalty and the red card. He did this again in the second half and that run should have been another penalty in my opinion and ended his participation in the game. This would be a huge blow for Egypt in the final. Don't believe me, just look at how poor we looked after Meteb was replaced and it took us around 15minutes to get back to the game (against 10 man Algeria) because a very important outlet in Meteb was gone.

Zidan compliments Meteb. His dribbling ability and the way he drops in the pocket between Meteb and the midfield makes all the difference. Give him the ball to feet and facing goal-wards and you are in for a treat. His dribbling ability can be rivaled only by the likes of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. He can score and create goals. He was unlucky in the first couple of games but his goal against Algeria was jaw dropping. Dribbling around Belhadj he finished the move off with a brilliant strike with his weaker left foot. I think the problem was he was pressured by the knowledge that he will always be substituted by Geddo no matter what. We all know how Shehata is superstitious. Meteb's injury sparked him to life and he knew he wouldn't be going off this time around.

Ahmed Hassan made up for his tense performance in Sudan by putting on a professional performance. He might not have been in the thick of the action but he was always ever present for his teammates asking for the ball and distributing it accurately he also did a great job on controlling Belhadj. There is also the phenomena of the tournament. Mohamed Nagy GEDDO whose sublime finishing could make him possibly the first tournament top scorer off the bench.

Overall Egypt were perfect. We have proved that we are indeed the best team in Africa. It remains to be seen how Egypt will adapt with out Meteb against a very fast Ghana side. However, win or lose this Egyptian team will forever be remembered as one of the best teams ever to play in the great continent. They have forever earned my respect and so has their coach. Say what you like about Shehata but at the end of the day he must be doing something right. Hats off to him and his brilliant team, they will always be the Champions of Africa in my book!