Hard way through!

Although egypt achieved its 6th title, their way wasn’t easy and was full of hurdles and problems. problems started since they won 2006 cup and continued inside the tournament itself.anyway, the team went to Dubai yesterday to participate in the celebrations made for them. also the latest news and players offers from the Egyptian camp.

the road to 2008 glory wasn’t paved, in fact if you lived the pre-tournament atmosphere here in egypt, you would have felt that this team will do nothing in Ghana and will return home quickly. after can 2006 and Egypt’s triumph, critics came up with the idea that Egypt has won it with luck and with support of fans, how ignorant!!. then came the African cup qualifiers, and the team’s performance didn’t encourage anyone to show any support. the team played very bad and failed to win any match outside egypt, they even won their last match against Botswana with a goal at 85 minute!!!. this sparked speculations and criticism, also the team and especially hassan shehata were being attacked by the federation’s board members. the atmosphere was very bad and tensioned and no one expected any thing from the team (including me), we were afraid that they will be humiliated there.

criticism and underestimation didn’t only came from inside egypt but it also came from the competitors. all competitors released statements underestimating egypt which tackled the challenge inside the players to do something. all in all, egypt entered the tournament as a so under-rated team. ( bas kolo 7′ad 3ala 2afah fe el a7′er…lol)

these were the psychological problems, now we come to the “logistic” problems. the team was scheduled to arrive in accra and take a plane directly to kumasi but this was a dream. the plane which was to carry them was a military one and wasn’t ready so the team had to sleep in accra. no not yet, the worse is to come, there wasn’t enough places for all players!!!. any way, the team arrived to kumasi, but unfortunately their luggage didn’t so they had to cancel 2 training sessions. the bags arrived the day after, and the player went for training only to find they are going to train in a school playground!! and the field was very bad; later zidan suffered injury in his ankle because of the bad field;. then came the chaotic organization, training sessions schedule was very disorganized and the team went to training to find cameroon players there so they went to another field which had no lights and the training went for 20 minutes only. but i have to say that things became better as the tournament went forward.

Dubai’s celebrations
soon after the team’s arrival to Cairo they returned to the airport heading for dubai to participate in the festival made for them. the festival was great and was attended by thousand of Egyptians living there who created a very great atmosphere. the team was honored by dubai’s senior officials and the prizes reached 30 million pounds. then the team took a picture and rounded the field to salute their fans.

shehata’s strong worded statements
after the festival, hassan shehata was interviewed by Dubai sports channel. the quiet man opened fire, he attacked board members saying that they aren’t Egyptians, they always attacked me and i didn’t respond because i didn’t want to get down to their level. BIG words, i think there will be some consequences in the few coming days. (rabena yostor!!)

latest news
- el hadary received an official offer from arsenal club of england to play for them for 100 million pounds!!. very huge offer, i think el ahly will accept it but let’s just wait and see what happens.

- hosny abd raboh say he has an offer from ac milan!!, while ahmed fathi said he has an offer from lazio!!….maybe yes and maybe no!!!

-in a very provoking statement, hamburg’s coach ( i don’t remember his name) said that he doesn’t care about what zidan did with egypt in ghana and he isn’t interested in what has happened there, all what he wants is to see zidan training with hamburg again!!!!

-ahmed hassan announced his international retirement, but he then talked with hassan shehata and he was convinced that this is a wrong decision. ahmed was about to retire because of intense criticism on him!!

if you are bored from reading, take a look at these pictures
- team’s arrival

-fans celebrations