World

Africa

Egypt

On the USA’s game and the prostitutes’ comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

June 22nd, 2009 | By: Tamim | 32 Comments »

We lost the game, missed a great opportunity to qualify to the semi final, we screwed up, the performance was terrible, Shehata made horrible mistakes in the line up and during the game; the result is that we are all sad and frustrated from the players. We can criticize them harshly, demand that they quit international football and Shehata to be fired, suspend them, and even ban them from playing football again but never accuse them in their honor.

This is unacceptable, intolerable and goes way beyond the limits especially that this group of players, with the testimony of all those who saw them, are one of the best disciplined in the history of Egyptian football, not to mention there very high morals.

Following the game and the bad result, Amr Adeeb, the host of Al Qahera Al Youm (Cairo Today) talk show attacked the players harshly but unfortunately he didn’t attack their performance, he called them names and questioned their morals.

He based his attack on an article published in a South African tabloid that said our players brought hookers after the game against Italy to their hotel rooms and made up this story of being robbed to cover it.

Before I go further,

Here is the link for the article

And here is the front page of the “newspaper”

1- The paper lacks any forms of credibility, it is obviously a tabloid from its design and from its language inside the article and if you take a good look on the front page you will find that all their stories deal with sex and crime.

2- no decent newspaper would make this its cover story especially that it isn’t so big

3- The story itself didn’t mention one name and depended on anonymous sources, which sparks many questions about the accuracy of information in it, journalistically speaking.

4- Here is a list of all South African newspapers; I don’t see any Sunday world!!!

5- The secretary general of the ministry of interior in South Africa denied that any source from the ministry gave any statements about this issue to any news paper.

6- The cameras of Al hayat TV were with the players inside the bus which rules out the possibility of such thing taking place also the players, the technical staff and the football association officials are all in the same floor so even if the player did something like this, they would have done it secretly not in the hotel.

7- these players are highly disciplined and well mannered, I have personally seen some of them and they were very modest; sayed moawad goes with me to the same mosque for the Friday prayers and I sat beside him more than once and all I can say is that he is a great and very humble person and not the type you would expect him to do something like that, and all other players are of the same type.

8- The Brazilian team said today that some players were robbed during their game against Italy!!!!

I don’t go with the theory that says south Africa has made up this story to cover for the lack of security, it is only a tabloid and tabloids make up stuff like this all the time; I wish all the best for south Africa in organizing the world cup but they should seriously address this security issue because it will be a disaster when more teams and more fans come to visit the country next summer.

That’s one thing; the other thing that left me puzzled is how one person can say this

And this

How can he say both things in a period of one week!!!

I hope the media’s criticism would be more rational and stick to technical issues and not make it personal, they should also be moderate in their celebration and moderate in their criticism; you can’t just raise a team to the sky amid two heroic performances against Brazil and Italy and then suddenly after one loss, you demand the firing of the coach and suspending the players!!!

The consequences of the incident seem to be very serious, Abu Treika said that if there was no formal apology to the players from Adeeb, he will retire from international football, Shehata and his staff are considering resigning from their technical posts, Zidan is considering going back to Germany and skipping Rwanda’s game and Ahmed Hassan said that the team will sop training and playing until a formal apology is issued and that they are filing a complaint to the general prosecutor.

The very best thing that characterized us, stability, is now threatened; I hope things get back to the right track soon because there is no weither time or place for such things.

Now back to the game

Before the game, I was worried that we would enter with over confidence and not give our best and that we would get hammered by the American team, then my concerns were doubled after I knew the line-up.

I just didn’t understand why did Shehata put Fathi in the stopper position while Oka was on the bench and why Mohammadi played when Fathi was fit, why homos didn’t start when Shawky was apparently tired especially that Homos had high morals after his goal in Italy.

Every time Shehata over improvise in the line-up and formation, we get a terrible result, just as Zambia’s game when he played with Barakat as a left wing while he originally plays on the right.

Ahmed Abdel Ghani was a huge disappointment, he couldn’t do anything and wasted a lot of chances especially at the beginning of the game, he didn’t even seem to try, and he just waited for the ball to come to him. Also Ahmed Eid was another disappointment, after two good displays in the past matches, something seemed to be wrong with him, he lost the ball every time and he couldn’t pass a decent ball and by the end of the half he lost concentration and started to make very silly and stupid mistakes.

The biggest disappointments of all was Ahmed El Mohammadi and Ahmed Samir Farag, seriously what were they doing in this game; they didn’t take part in the previous matches so certainly they weren’t tired; why couldn’t they run to the ball and missed most of the passes that reached them and why couldn’t they just send one accurate pass!!

The defense was terrible, no man marking, no positioning…nothing and if it wasn’t for El Hadary we would have conceded more in the first half; even more, they intercepted El Hadary more than once and made him lose the ball after he already has caught it in his hands and I wonder what Wael Gomaa and Hani Said were doing, they seemed completely out of the game.

To be fair, conditions weren’t helping, we missed some key layers because of injuries and some players seemed very tired after two exhausting matches against Brazil and Italy and before them a stressful match against Algeria all this in a matter of 2 weeks, also most of the substitutions were compulsory because of injuries during the game.

Anther thing that pissed me off is this insistence on sending crosses while we knew that American defenders are tall and would deal with any high ball in the penalty area, why did Mohammadi and Farag continue to send crosses and why didn’t Shehata intervene?

All in all, we sucked and we could have made history but we didn’t take advantage of the golden opportunity especially after Brazil’s result against Italy; however, we crashed early from the tournament.

Now, the most important thing is not to repeat mistakes and to focus on Rwanda’s game because there are no other choices than winning with a big goal difference and from what we have seen in the confederation cup, this team can do it provided that they concentrate and not underestimate the opponent.

Here are the highlights

Good luck isa in the upcoming matches

UPDATE: an official apology was issued today by the organizing committee of the confederations cup to Egypt denying anything about Egyptian players bringing prostitutes.

http://new.filgoal.com/English/News.aspx?NewsID=57028

Tags: abu treika, amr adeeb, confederations cup, egypt, shehata, south africa, sunday world, Team News, USA, zidan

Egypt World Cup RSS Feed

del.icio.us:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

digg:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

newsvine:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

reddit:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

fark:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

Y!:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

stumbleupon:On the USA's game and the prostitutes' comedy!! (update: South Africa apologizes officialy)

Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 32 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Alex | June 23rd, 2009 at 10:21 am

The scandal should be that the guy seemed to be on drugs when he recorded the show….
No, really. 2 out of eight teams have their hotel rooms robbed. Does that mean that 25% of the teams participating in the WC will have their luggage snagged next year? Why didn’t they give the WC to a North African country?!?!?

By Tamim | June 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am

adam: it’s over and we deserved to lose this match….good luck to you

dareen: today he apologized and samir zaher said that shehata will stay the head coach of the team till the end of the qualifications.

rachid: the funny thing is that 3ala2 sade2 was fired from the station (modern sport) because of a similar thing. nfortunately, there are a lot of these people everywhere not only in egypt. the players filed a suit against him in front of the general prosecutor, he willl get his punishment.

taryn: this was only one of the problems that we faced on this day.

sandrahn: well said!!

alex: it is avery serious problem that south africa should really deal with; the WC wasn’t given to a north african country because there were bribees and dirty stuff and bad management from the egyptian campaign!!!
good luck to SA though.

By MoMONEY | June 24th, 2009 at 12:42 am

I agree and disagree.

To me we have no reason to be proud of our performance. The issue is that we thought we were a new Egypt, a better Egypt- and they turned out to be the same old Egypt. Changes need to happen- I dont know what they are but it is absolutely unacceptable for the team to not show up the way they did- and thats what it was- wasnt an issue of tactics or injuries- it was an issue of not wanting it and not trying hard enough. To me that is unacceptable for any team- let alone one that calls them selves continental champs and hopes to represent Africa and the Middle East in the world cup… Plain and simple they did not deserve it.

I agree that the media is a bit out of place though- should worry about the performance and not rumors…

By MoMONEY | June 24th, 2009 at 12:46 am

Also I want to add that they need to be criticized- based on facts- and not just destroyed and derided as is so often the case in Egypt. Basically the point is not to be happy with the performances- so there is pressure for improvement. Thats the only way things progress no matter where in the world you are… Look at the Italians- usually if they give up a goal the media questions them. Thats why they are constantly seeking perfection.

I still think the solution is to send most of our players to the big leagues- even if they become role players. We need professionalism. We dont have it. Send the youngsters and let them learn. Treating them like kings within their own country just makes them all complacent. This issue applies to so many fields in Egypt- not just football. Hopefully they get it together for the qualifying…

By omar | June 24th, 2009 at 3:02 am

ay MO i like to let u no tht alot of young players now below the u-20 r goin abroad and stayin there…players left zamalek and ahly and ismaily and went to play in europe so maybe tht wud fix the probem 6 years from now lol…but i totally agree with u but it won happen cuz all the egyptian players are uneducated so their dirty agents trick them into doin wht the agents wnt…so it will be difficult for them to even go to euro i mean steve bruce even said tht zakis agent feed amr bullshit day and night…and tht his agent was prtly to blame for his fall..srry to lazy to get the link to the article..lol..
for me the solution is not to fix the NT but to fix me..ima just stop belevein in them and become negative so tht way when they lose im not shocked and when they win its like whtev…ima tell u exactly whts gnna happen in the WC QUALIFIERS:
RAWANDA: EGYPT WIN
RAWANDA:EGYPT WIN
ZAMBIA:EGYPT WIN
then when we all pile on the praise and say were gnna beat algeria and all tht needless hoopla
ALGERIA:ALGERIA WIN…ima say 2-1

By Rachid | June 24th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

The US confirms against Spain in a very big way! What a great American “can-do” attitude. Today, Americans showed that principle can even be applied to Soccer. Go figure!!!

Posted from United States

By Dareen | June 24th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

I am seriously getting sick of them dissapointing us. I mean they just put us on such a high after the first two matches that people cried when we lost to the U.S ,but thats our team they can never keep up the good performance just goes to show that we were just getting lucky.

Posted from United States

By omar | June 25th, 2009 at 5:06 am

ay i guess we lost to a good team ..hell they beat the number one team in the world who hadnt lost for wht 47 games in a row….i guess this means we dont suck tht bad if at all…

By Amir | June 26th, 2009 at 7:25 am

who agrees with me the US technology in doping is way ahead of all other nations? I mean look at the physical strength of those guys… incredible!!!

Posted from Hungary

By Mostafa | June 26th, 2009 at 10:16 am

Despite missing Zaki, Zidan and Meteb due to injuries, the Pharaohs coach Shehata said that he will not call replacement strikers for the upcoming clash with Rwanda. The Pharaohs need to win by a large margin in order to keep their qualification hopes alive but the lack of quality in the striking line-up is the main problem at the time being. This issue can be solved by calling Mido back to the national team but it seems that Shehata is not keen on recalling the Boro striker.

By Mostafa | June 26th, 2009 at 10:17 am

FROM EP PLAYERS

By Tamim | June 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am

Amir:lol…….i guess physical strength is all they got and it is obvious in their first goal against spain!!!

Mostafa: shehata said he won’t call any new players because they will be unfit coming from a relaxation period after the end of the season, they haven’t trained for more than a month!!

By Mostafa | June 26th, 2009 at 11:26 am

so there is good chances zidan and mowad are gonna be playing against rawanda?

By Tamim | June 26th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

yes, to a large extent they will participate….but neither fathi nor abdel ghani will be able to catch the game which is a big loss because we need fathi badly!!!

By MoMONEY | June 26th, 2009 at 11:30 pm

I can tell you from first hand experience that doping in Egypt is way more prominent then in the USA. Have you been to a swimming pool in Egypt recently? Americans just have the proper mentality to work and fight for everything- Egyptians think they are talented and will win because they are more skilled. Thats not how it works. And its a shame that they still haven’t realized it

By Tamim | June 27th, 2009 at 5:12 am

mo: they aren’t saints and we aren’t that bad; as far as i know a lot of the doping cases recorded during olympic games were for american atheletes; on the other hand, there are a lot of hard workers in egypt, it is just that they don’t get enough media attention!!

By omar | June 28th, 2009 at 1:54 am

ay i have lived in both countries for a significant amount of time and trust me there is wayyyyyyyyyyyy more dopin in the united states than there is in egypt…wayyyyyyyyy…i mean in baseball alone u got ur era labeled the “steriods era”…but lets not get into baseball….any ways im sure egypt wud use performance enhancers more than the americans if they had the money and the connections…but they dont

By MoMONEY | June 28th, 2009 at 9:06 am

Lol ok but either way the USA didnt win because of doping… It was a determination and grit that the Egyptians decided to leave at home that day for God nows what reason…

By omar | June 29th, 2009 at 3:07 am

tru dat tru dat

By Mark | June 29th, 2009 at 10:14 am

i doubt anyone on the USA soccer team dopes….trust me, i am into bodybuilding, and i have one or two friends that do that…and you would be able to tell by their size to body fat proportion. Just because they are big or strong does not mean they dope. Onyewu or Altidore are not “cut” enough (body fat) to be doping.

By omar | June 30th, 2009 at 4:37 am

i dont think anyone actually meant they used steriods it was just a joke and prolly a referenece to the enormous prominence of roids in american sports…and i dare anyone to tell me otherwise(say ther aint a lot of roids goin round in american sports)!!!!!!!!

By Tamim | July 1st, 2009 at 2:58 am

Gamal Hamza scored in his first match with Mainz, i hope he follow the footsteps of zidan there and make agreat season and move to a bigger club because he is really agood talent but as usual lacks dicspline!!!

By Amir | July 1st, 2009 at 3:45 am

Tamim, the only Egyptian player that went abroad and had discipline was Hany Ramzy. The majority of Egyptians do not know the meaning of this word and those who have it, they prefer to stay at home or ask for way too much.

Posted from Hungary

By Tamim | July 1st, 2009 at 5:19 am

sad but true!!!

i hope this changes one day

By Tamim | July 1st, 2009 at 5:21 am

on another note, zamalek bought an 18 years old player who played at inter milan youth team. WOW, did we have a player there, why did he leave, is there other ones whom we don’t know about?!!

Comments are closed