Accra, here we come

dom dom the champs are here …dom dom the champs are here. what a match!!. what a marvelous Egyptian team!!. egypt literally out played cote d’ivoire. 4 goals in what was considered the best team in Africa and all in style!!. i consider myself very lucky to blog for this team.

yesterday, egypt won 4-1 against cote d’ivoire in the second semi-final of ghana 2008 to book their ticket in the final match. the goals were scored by fathi,amr zaki (2) and abu treika while abdul qader keita scored for cote d’ivoire.

i can safely say that this is the best Egyptian national team in the history of Egyptian football . egypt never had this amount of great players with great individual abilities and with this chemistry between them and this dedication for their country in this way before. zaki, abu treika, zidan, hosni abd raboh are all names that have reserved their names in the mind of every Egyptian. all what they need is to play in the world cup.

before the match, every one in egypt was anxious. the opponent is tough and no one was sure that egypt will win, some wanted to reach a draw and then win by penalty shootouts. some even were satisfied that we reached the semi-final and were very happy by that(to be honest i was one of them). on the ivoirian camp the fans were already celebrating and they went by thousands to kumasi to celebrate their win.

in Ghana, the opposite was there, and you can see the difference in the eyes of players before the match. when the ivoirian bus came, i saw all players celebrating and dancing and seemed to be very arrogant as if they already won. on the other hand the Egyptian players were focused and concentrated. at this moment i knew we could do something here.

after the match, i can’t describe what has happened in Cairo with words. although the match ended at 1:00 am, everyone went to the streets to celebrate. the streets were full with people with a flag in every hand and in every car all pumping horns, firing flares and chanting. the surprise made people go crazy. me myself went to the streets in a car waving a flag and whenever someone sees the flag they cheer. you can sense the real happiness in the eyes of people.

the match
now, let’s talk about the match itself. hassan shehata really proved he is a class coach. he adopted the very right tactic for the match that depends on closing the midfield and defense in front of cote d’ivoire , a thing which we succeeded in. the players were all fighters and were up to the job.

first half
as expected the match started with huge pressure from cote divoire trying to score an early goal to frustrate us but the midfield and defense were very successful in keeping all ivoarian players under control, however drogba could run away and make some dangerous chances. but whenever the Egyptian team had the ball, they passed the ball well and were dangerous. at the 12th minute from a corner deflected by defense ahmed fathi fired a shot that hit someone and found its way home. the rest of the half was one way toward el hadary who was extraordinary and made a couple of world class saves. egypt then depended on counter attack and could score another. the ivoarian keeper went out because of injury and was substituted. this substitute goal keeper was very weak and egypt made an advantage of him, this was clearly seen from two shots where he appeared shaky and not confident.

second half
or can i call it ” the glory half”. at the beginning of the half, drogba made a very dangerous header that was miraculously saved by el hadary. cote d’ivoire continued their attack with egypt depending on counter attacks. and again from a corner, amr zaki put a stunning header in a place where no goal keeper in the world would reach. after the goal, the players relaxed to find their immediate punishment from abd el qader keita from a long range shot. after only 4 minutes amr zaki again received a long ball from el hadary and dribbled through the defense especially kolo toure and fired a shot in the goal. after the goal the match-temper became low . zidan entered and formed a couple of very dangerous counter attacks. cote d’ivoire again seeked to regain their prestige but zidan troubles again lead an attack and passes a “you must score” pass to abo treka who didn’t refuse the gift and score.then the celebrations started.

players ratings
all 10 out of 10. it is more than enough the happiness they sent to 80 million egyptian and maybe 300 million Arab supporter. this is more important than anything.

what i have learned from the match?

1-egypt is a world class team that we all should be proud of.

2- Cameroon are shaking out of fear now.

3-it doesn’t matter where the player plays but how good is he!!.

4-i wonder what drogba will say to his team mates in Chelsea!!

5-egypt only need to play in the world cup.

6- it is very important now to not over-celebrate and concentrate on Cameroon match.

our next match is the final, and all the eyes will be on us. we have to stop celebrations and concentrate and restore our spirit we had before cote d’ivoire match. Cameroon will not be shaky and will be highly focused. isa we will win and even if we don’t i will be happy.

yalla ya masrawya….shedo 7elko shwya