Brazil – Egypt: entertaining the samba!!

Our boys will kick off their refurbishing campaign during the confederations cup through brazil in a pressure-less match that can either raise them to the highest sky or bring them deep deep down.

We could have only dreamed of arranging a friendly against the selecao where we will pay a large sum of money, Brazil will play with its reserves and even more embarrass us in front of our fans; but now things are different.

Playing their first official match, both teams are entering the game with fear from the other side; Brazilians don’t know what to expect from a mysterious Egyptian side to them while we fear the Brazilians just because they are Brazil!!

A widespread opinion argues tat if we lost 3 to Algeria then we may lose 5 or 6 from Brazil but I disagree because preparing yourself mentally and psychologically for a game against Algeria, although official and important, is very different than preparing for brazil even if it is a friendly; players are more concentrated, know that the opponent’s players are very hard to play against, can dribble through them anytime so they expect it and get ready for it.

Others say that we breakdown against major teams but that isn’t true; we played Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Sweden, Uruguay, we won 2-0 against Sweden while lost the rest 2-0 and if it wasn’t for the lack of experience, we would have achieved better results; now our players don’t fear big names like they did in the past.

Brazil

They are the defending champions, they have never missed a single edition of the confederations cup and their form is at its highest beating Uruguay in Uruguay 4-0 and beating South American qualifiers group leaders Paraguay 2-1.

But As I mentioned, for many players Egypt is simply unknown for them so they will discover us in the field which maybe an advantage for us if we started attacking early and even if we don’t score we will cause them some alarm that it isn’t an easy game.

For that reason, Dunga will most probably field some of his best not to take any chances especially that the group gives no room for mistake.

Players to fear are kaka, for obvious reasons, Robinho, this guy can dribble very easily against the whole of the defense line and Alves (Maicon) in the right wing.

Probable formation: Julio Cesar, Alves, Lucio, Juan, Kleber, Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Elano, Kaka, Robinho, Luis Fabiano.

Egypt

If we had returned from Algeria with the 3 points, it would have a magical effect on our players and would have given a lot of confidence and most importantly boosted some confidence to our fans; however, we didn’t.

The Players and Shehata should think of this game as a fresh start that can restore the fans’ confidence in them; but this can only happen if they do their best even if they didn’t or grab a point but they must convince that they have given their best.

The game is a chance for many new faces and young players to play against a major football side in the world and gain international experience and maybe if they excel, they will get a couple of offers from European clubs, agents will be watching.

The defense and El Hadary are going to have a rough time having to deal with constant one way attack from Kaka and co but if they manage to withhold during the first half, stress will find its way to the Brazilians and then we can play our game.

For this reason Shehata is going to play with a 3-5-2 formation with 5 defenders, three midfield players with more defensive shores and an attacking couple of Zidan and Abu Treika.

According to how the game goes, Ahmed Eid Abdel Malek and Ahmed Raouf may find their way into the score sheet of the game.

Probable formation:

……………………………..el hadary…………………….
Ahmed fathi……gomaa……hany said………oka……..sayed mmoawad
………….shawky………..ahmed Hassan……..abd Raboh
………………………….abu treika…………………
…………………………zidan…………………………

The match

The more we keep a clean sheet for a longer time, the more we will gain confidence and the more we can play.

Counter attack from Zidan and Abu Treika will be decisive especially with Lucio in defense, he is strong but make a lot of mistakes which we can take advantage of; however, we will have to deal with a fine goalkeeper like Cesar.

It is a mission semi-impossible!!!

Prediction: 2-0 (kaka, Pato)

Streams: before the game

And sorry for the very late preview, just returned from a holiday in Alexandria!!

Iraqi corner

Congratulations to our Iraqi brothers for their well deserved point against the home team at the opening match of the tournament.

Since there is no blog for iraq on WCB, I am going to dedicate a part of each post for the Iraqi team news and matches and our Iraqi brothers are most welcomed to participate and join the discussion…..el bet betkom