Oman – Egypt preview: Algeria’s rehearsals!!

May 29th, 2009 | by: Tamim |

Consider the stadium isn’t the stadium, the opponent isn’t the opponent and the fans definitely not the fans; I am talking about our game with Oman and the following one against Algeria.

When our boys take the gulf champions, Oman in the friendly match in Muscat, the thoughts of the players, fans and Shehata will be on the game against Algeria and Oman will only be a final rehearsal before the game.

Having lived in the country for one year myself, I can say that they are very friendly people who love Egyptians very much and of course there are a lot of Egyptians there so it will feel like home.

The choice of oman didn’t convince many as we should have played against a north African team or at least an African who follow the same school of the Algerian team; however, I guess Oman is a good team and play highly technical football with good skills just like Algeria; the purpose of the game is to restore chemistry between players anyway.

Oman

As I said they are the gulf champions and they have some good players who play in Qatar and Saudi league; from the matches I saw for them, they play short ball team football with some good skills.

Their keeper Ali Al Habsi plays in Bolton in England and he has excellent reflexes, their striker Emad El Hosani , scouted by Ahly, is sharp at goal but physically weak and can be easily put under control.

Here is a short video to give you a idea about them

Egypt

Shehata left both Ahmed Fathi and Ahmed Hassan for Ahly to play their away game at the confederation cup and the same may go for Haras El Hodoud and ENPPI players who mayn’t be in the list of the 17 players who will play against Oman.

apart from that, everyone is ready and Shehata will have a wide variety of choices in front of him in all positions but I guess he will field his “semi” starting eleven for Algeria’s game in the first half and then start to give a chance for the new names and the old faces who didn’t witness international action for a while.

With the lack of strikers, Shehata may possibly try Zaki as a sole striker and behind him Abu Trieka and Zidan or put Zidan In front with Zaki and behind them abu treika but I go with the first more given that we needn’t leave open spaces for the opponent (I mean Algeria).

Or he may play with a striker and a play maker either Abu Treika or Zidan and put two center midfields (Shawky and Hosni).

Probable formation:

…………………………el hadary……………………
El mohamady…..wael gomaa….hani saeed…..fathallah…..sayed moawad
………………………….hosni abd Raboh………shawky….
…………………………………abo treika…………..
………………zaki……..……………………………zidan

The match

Half of the stadium will be packed with Egyptian fans so we won’t feel the away pressure; however, we should take the game more than seriously and expect pressure from a team who is eager to prove his class against the African champions which Is good because we will put the players to the test.

Honestly, it is performance and team chemistry that I will be looking forward to not goals; I want to see a solid team that can keep the ball and control the tempo of the game more than some individual play and meaningless goals.

Prediction: 1-0, Zaki

Good luck for our boys

PS: sorry for the short preview but I have an exam tomorrow, Monday and another on Wednesday!!!!

Tags: algeria, egypt, oman, shehata, Team News, Zaki, zidan

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Comments

By omar | May 31st, 2009 at 4:02 am

1-0 in a eh performance

By Rachid | May 31st, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Tamim, I wish Egypt luck, just as I do Algeria. It’s only a football game at the very beginning of the road to WC 2010. I must say though that I do not have a good feeling for Egypt about this particular game. If Ahly is the “barometer” for Egyptian football, then all is not good and there are reasons to be concerned. Ahly said goodbye today to the CAF tournament in a very humiliating manner. Ahly’s troubles, Zaki’s and Midou’s episodes, etc. indicate there are problems that need to be addressed asap. For the game in Algeria, the toughest challenge is to get the players prepared mentally with the atmosphere around them. In a somewhat related subject, I was very surprised today to see Egyptian TV choosing to broadcast the Ahly game from Angola and not bothering with any of two other perhaps more important games at home, Harass against Ahly Tripoli and Ennpi against the giant ASEC. With Ahly winning at home two weeks ago by 3-0 and Harass and Ennpi both achieving good results away from home, logic dictates Egyptian TV would show one of the home games. I was really surprised by that and I know very well it would never happen in Tunisia. May be it’s true: “Ahly above everyone”!

By omar | June 1st, 2009 at 6:34 am

actualy the ennppi game was televised on the same channel eht ahly game was on just an hr and half later…and the reason ahly lost( i dont like makin exucses for them since i hate them) but it s cuz wael, abo treika, shadi, ahmed said, and prbly several more are al with egypt and not with ahly..prrty simple actaully…and mido hasnt had any episodes in like 2 yrs unless u count the episode tht zaki made up to get mido in trble…so the only valid point tht u make rachid is the prblem with zaki which really isnt a prblem since my fav tandem of forwrds r mido and zidan…im absoultly 100% sure it will be a very sloppy and borin game aside frm the fact tht it is a great rivalry game…egypt wins 1-0 in a very ugly/borin game…
ps ahly is no longer the barometer of the egyptian national team gone are the days when 75 % of the team is ahly, there are plenty of players playin abroad and in the petrol teams on the natl team as displayed vs oman…so rachid next time u try and act like u no whts goin on…try and make ur opinions a little smrter and dont just go with the flow of the media

By tamim | June 1st, 2009 at 7:18 am

rachid: i will begin from where you ended, this won’t happen in tunisia because all top 4 clubs have their huge fan base which isn’t the case with enppi and haras el hdood being a petroleum company club and a military club so they basically have no fans so no one would prefer them over ahly; beside enppi’s game was broadcasted right after ahly’s game.

rather than that, i agree with every word you said except that ahly is the barometer; this isn’t the atmosphere i wanted before a crucial game against algeria but i only hope things will get back to the right track before the game but to be honest i am very worried. concerning ahly, i think that ahly is no more the sole and only barometer of the national team it is ONE of the barometers;as omar said there are a lot of new players in the team only 2 or 3 from al ahly.

omar: ahly lost because of underestimation, stupid coaching and of course terrible goal keeping from ramzy saleh not because the missed one or two players’ they chose who they wanted to take and who to leave. i am not defending them but i wanted to say that ahly’s curve is on the decline.

By omar | June 2nd, 2009 at 12:45 am

good i dont like ahly

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