Brazil 4 – Egypt 3 : killer set pieces!!!

In 1990, Magdy Tolba missed from the goal line and Hossam Hassan could have scored 2 on his own also in 1990 Gamal Abdel Hamid could have sent England home but his header hit the post and now in 2008, kaka snatched, literally, the three point for brazil against a brave Egyptian side to make it a trend for Egypt in international tournaments to undeservedly lose against major teams.

Honestly, this is one of the best matches I have ever seen Egypt play considering the opponent; we owned the field, imposed our style, attacked, controlled the midfield and closed down on brazil wings but we were an extreme failure in set pieces, we could have won easily but it’s our habit in major international tournaments we play in.

The amount of pessimism and attack on Hassan Shehata and the players was huge to the extent tat someone went live on air to call for firing Shehata and the whole EFA; the picture was so dark, but once against Shehata emerges victorious and shut his criticizers up.

It was so funny to read Egyptian fans comments on websites that made live coverage for the match at the beginning they were cursing and swearing and then the intensity of the tone decreased and finally they were praising and supporting, all this in a space of one hour!!!!

We simply outplayed Brazil, the Brazilians were bedazzled by some Brazilian skills and goals and a solid defense, except in free kicks and a clever coach who succeeded in turning the game upside down.

After all, This guy wasn’t wrong

First half

The players entered with great fear from the Brazilian team; however they managed to put themselves together for the first five minutes then came kaka’s goal from a silly mistake from Hani Said and Wael Gomaa with a lot of luck for the Brazilian star.

After everyone opened their counters, getting ready for the Egyptian breakdown, Abu Treika and Zidan stunned Brazil to bring Egypt back to the game; then, came the free kick comedy with no man marking or organized positioning and bad goalkeeping, the result with two avoidable goals.

Despite the goals, we played good; we passed the ball, dribbled, shoot, created chances but couldn’t score more. Shawky played his best game since Ghana 2008 and made some fine touches on the ball in more than one occasion, Sayed Moawad surprisingly impressed Abu Treika and Zidan created an extremely dangerous couple.

Second half

Before the second half began, everyone had the memory of Algeria’s game and we were expecting a breakdown like what happened there but for our pleasant surprise we played even better in the second half while Brazil completely collapsed in front of the efficient, organized, team work, lethal Egyptian attacks.

A turning point was the substitution of Ahmed Hassan with Ahmed Eid Abdel Malek who came in to give the Brazilians a lesson in skills and how to dribble; however, if it wasn’t for his lack of experience, he would have scored a couple of goals by himself from pure individual talent; really, a clever substitution from Shehata.

After we scored our two goals, we felt that this is enough although we had the chance to achieve a historical result by scoring more goals but we didn’t.

Then it was Brazil’s fourth goal; no doubt the ball is a penalty but the point is that the referee whistled for a corner kick and after 2 minutes he gave a penalty; one theory says that the fourth referee or game’s supervisor told him through the mic. that the ball touched Muhammadi’s hand, who by the way didn’t have any other options, after he saw it in the replay; and since when is FIFA is using video replays?!!!!!!

Comments

We proved that Algeria’s game was just an exception and that our team isn’t old and still has what it can show to the whole world and silenced all critics and most of all proved that Egypt is one of the world’s football powerhouses.

Shehata played with a mix of the old and new creating the perfect formula for the future of this team; thank god, Zaki wasn’t there, he is just a stupid troublemaker, nothing more.

Oka proved that he is the future of defense in the national team, putting in mind that this is his third international match; he put an excellent performance despite some little mistakes.

some would say that we are over reacting and that Brazil wasn’t taking it seriously; ok, how do you explain why Brazil fielded its best available 11? Dunga’s facial expressions during the game? Brazilian players calling for the penalty kick? Cesar celebrating Abdel Malek shot at the end of the game? clearing the ball aimlessly during Egyptian attacks?!!

The most touching scene in the game was that Egyptian fan crying after zidan scored the third goal, very emotional.

Game statistics

Brazil (BRA) Statistics Egypt (EGY)
17 Shots 12
8 Shots on goal 6
4 Goals 3
15 Fouls Committed 16
15 Fouls Suffered 13
5 Corner kicks 3
16 Free kicks 12
1 / 1 Penalty Kicks (Goals/Shots) 0 / 0
0 Offsides 2
0 Own goals 0
0 Yellow cards 1
0 Second yellow card and red card 0
0 Red Cards 1
32 Actual playing time 36
48% Possession (%) 52%

Here are the match goals

Good luck for our boys in the next game against Italy.