Egypt-Cameroon preview

January 21st, 2008 | by: Tamim | Comments(11)

“they are coming”;”let them come” that was what the commercial said. so, the Egyptian champions are here ready to start their campaign of defending their crown with a powerful clash against Cameroon.in the time that 80 million Egyptian will be cheering for them at home.so, who will play? what are the main challenges and predictions?.

group c opener is one of the African football classics. it is one of the masterpieces of the group stage and a must see match for African football lovers. the long anticipated match will put two giants head to head. after egypt broke the record and scored its fifth African cup it stood at the top of African football; on the other side, Cameroon has 4 cups in its bag and will be looking forward to score its fifth one in Ghana.

from the first look it seems unfair to compare Cameroon with its famous stars with Egypt’s local players.but this can be an advantage because Egyptian players are in harmony together because they know and play with each other a lot. a second point is the average age for every team, Cameroon players are old compared to their Egyptian counterparts.

the Egyptian team is mainly formed of the players who made 2006 triumph added to them 2 or 3 new players.the Egyptian team arrived last Thursday and had a lot of problems in traveling by plane , hotel accommodations and their luggage didn’t arrive with them instead it arrived on Sunday!!. which led hassan shehata to cancel 2 training sessions that were scheduled before. rather than that, every thing is just fine and every one is ready for the fight.

the match is considered a rivalry match for Cameroon. 3 years ago in wc 2006 qualifiers egypt equalized with Cameroon in yawendy 1-1 to deprive Cameroon from going to Germany. so they will try tomorrow to take revenge from egypt. so let’s go to the match.

event:egypt-Cameroon can 2008
time:19:00 (Cairo local time), 17:00 (kumasi local time)
place: baba yara sports stadium, kumasi
kits:egypt (red jersey/ white shorts/ black socks)
Cameroon (green jersey/ red shorts/ yellow socks)
last three matches:egypt,DWW
cameroon, LLW
probable squads:
egypt:
el hadary
hany said
ahmed fathy,wael gomaa, mahmoud fathallah, said moawad
hosni abd raboh, mohamed shawky
mohamed zidan
amr zaki,emad moteb

cameroon:
i have no idea!!!

key absentees:ahmed hassan will not be there because he had a red card in Burundi’s match in world cup qualifiers, Ibrahim said, because he is not ready yet, coming from a knee injury and he hasn’t the required fitness

key matchups:
the defense vs. Samuel eto: it will be a hard task for the Egyptian defenders to keep eto under control. marking an extra powerful talented striker and one of the most dangerous players in the world will be a very hard job. i personally believe that wael gomaa is up to the job.
el hadary vs. Cameroon strikers: the best goal keeper in Africa will be the man to beat by Cameroon strikers. it seems to be mission impossible

said moawad vs. geremi: i am very afraid from this challenge. since mohammed abd el wahab passed away and egypt lacks a powerful, skillful left winger. this is the first international tournament for said moawad so he doesn’t have the experience to face an experienced player like geremi.

mohamed zidan vs. himself: although he has the best skills in the championship but he lacks the team work needed. he had troubles in the preparation friendlies. learning how to play with the team, more concentration will be zizou’s challenge.

hassan shehata vs. the formation:he is hesitating between 4/4/2 and 3/5/2. the main question is whether to play with a sweeper or not. the importance of a sweeper stems from the defenders lack of speed against the fast players of Cameroon. i think he will play with a sweeper.

game: i personally think a draw is more than enough for egypt, however it won’t play for it. the match will start with Cameroon doing all the attack and egypt trying to contain them and will play on the counter attack. in the second half both teams will exchange attacks.

predictions: 0-0