Egypt – Kenya, “A.K.A” casting

Friday night our national team will be playing against Kenya in their second trial match in preparation for the world cup qualifiers.

And since the game is out of the FIFA’s agenda for international friendlies Hassan Shehata didn’t call professionals in Europe; instead he decided to give new faces a a chance as well as old faces who have been absent because of injury.

Although the choice of the opponent is very questionable, it is a very good opportunity for some new faces like Walid Solieman. Ahmed Abd El Ghani and Abd Allah El Saeed to prove themselves.

It is also good preparation for the game against Ghana on 11th of February which will most probably witness our full team in a serious game.

An interesting thing about the game is that its revenue will be donated to the victims of the Gaza massacre which makes the probability of seeing a sizable audience high; also one stand will be open free for Palestinians living in Egypt to enjoy the game.

The opponent

It seems that even the Kenyans aren’t taking it seriously; first of all, they changed their coach earlier this week because the ex-coach didn’t’ want to play against us.

Then 5 of their main stars won’t be participating because they will join their club in its preparations for the African champions league games starting next month!!; They even decided to show up for the game only late on Wednesday having one complete training session.

Aside from that; Kenya has qualified for the last stage of world cup qualifiers with Nigeria, Tunisia and Mozambique meaning that they are a good team; however they won’t differ much than our last friendly’s opponent Benin when we won easily 5-1.

Egypt

Squad

Goalkeepers: Abdul-Wahed Al-Sayed, Amir Abdul-Hamid, Amer Mohamed (very new face)

Defenders: Wael Gomaa, Ahmed Al-Sayed, Hani Saied, Mahmoud Fathallah, Ahmed Samir Farag, Ahmed Khairi (very new face), Osama Mohamed, Ahmed Al-Muhammadi

Midfielders: Walid Soliman, Ahmed Shaaban, Ahmed Fathi, Ahmed Hassan, Shikabala, Mohamed Al-Herda (new face), Abdul-Aziz Tawfeek, Abdullah Al-Saied

Strikers: Ahmed Eid, Ahmed Abdul-Ghani, Ahmed Abdul-Maguid (new face), Ahmed Raouf (new face)

As you can see, a lot of new faces but what is even interesting is the return of heavyweight players like Ahmed Fathi and Shikabala especially Ahmed Fathi who was one of the main reason of our triumph in Ghana given his defensive and offensive abilities, potential to play at any position in the field and above all we have been lacking a right winger since his injury.

Also Shikabala showed up again since after finishing his suspension from FIFA and we will enjoy his skills once again.

On the other hand Mohamed Barakat was not chosen for this game; however Shehata assured that he will be chosen for Ghana’s game saying that his game is for the new faces.

The match

We will attack and they will defend; expect a lot of goals

Prediction: 5-0

IN OTHER NEWS:

- Mido has joined Amr Zaki at Wigan on a loan deal until the end of the season; the deal involves a swap where Marlon king will replace Mido. This is great news for Mido who can excel with Amr Zaki though he may find competition from Emil Heskey.

- The U20 national team won their match against cote d’ivoire 2-1 and now have a chance to qualify to the next round if they beat South Africa.

- Hossam Ghaly is on the edge of a move to Al Nasr club in Saudi Arabia; a bad move to a way lower level league, he should have stayed in Europe or return to Egypt at least!!