Squad announced; Explanation needed!!

May 21st, 2009 | by: Tamim | Comments(10)

So the squad for Algeria’s match, Confederations cup and Rwanda’s match was announced full of surprises, the biggest one was leaving out Mido and injured Mohamed Barakat and Hazem Emam getting his first international call-up.

Here is the squad

Goalkeepers: Essam El Hadary (FC Sion), Abdel Wahed El Sayed (Zamalek), Mohamed Sobhy (Ismaily), El Hany Soliman (Ittehad).

Defenders: Hany Said (Zamalek), Mahmoud Fathallah (Zamalek), Wael Gomaa (Ahly), Ahmed Said (Haras El Hodood), Sherif Abdel Fadeel (Ismaily).

Midfielders: Ahmed Fathy (Ahly), Sayed Moawad (Ahly), Mohamed Abotreka (Ahly), Ahmed Hassan (Ahly), Samer Farag (Ismaily), Mohamed Hommos (Ismaily), Ahmed Khairy (Ismaily), Ahmed El Mohammadi (ENNPI), Abdel Aziz Tawfik (ENPPI), Mohamed Shawky (Middlesbrough), Hamzem Emam (Zamalek), Hosni Abr Rabo (Ahly Dubai), and Ahmed Eid Abdel Malik (Haras El Hodood).

Attackers: Mohamed Zidan (Borussia Dortmund), Amr Zaki (Wigan Athletic), Eihab El Masry (Arab Contractors), Ahmed Raouf (ENPPI), Mohsen Abogresha (Ismaily), and Ahmed Abdel Ghany (Haras El Hodood).

So Sayed Moawad and Mohamed homos return to the national team after long absence while Hazem Emam was chosen as expected due to the great performances he demonstrated during the past 2 months; however, some new and surprising names were chosen like Abo Greisha, Ehab El Masry and Sherif Abdel Fadil.

The strikers chosen are good but they aren’t good enough, lacking international experience to play against Algeria where the stakes are at their highest or in an international tournament where the whole world is watching and the pressure needs experienced players especially when playing against teams like Brazil and Italy.

With the absence of Meteb and the importance of the matches and the good form Mido was in during the past matches, I have been thinking what the possible reasons for leaving Mido are; I guess it is because the problem with Amr Zaki that erupted after Zambia’s match given that Mido isn’t Shehata’s favorite on the contrary of Zaki who has been completely out of form lately and even more is returning from injury.

Or maybe Shehata saw that Mido will be a heavy burden on the team and that he needs players he can control!!

Some would say that Mido has been ineffective for the NT and that we won the African cup without him; I would say that even if Mido is on the bench, his name is big enough to keep opponents wary and concerned, talking about Algeria, and famous enough for international players to know and put in mind, talking about brazil and Italy; that’s of course compared to the other names chosen.

Questions also roam around the choice of Mohamed Shawky who hasn’t been playing at all for a very long time!!

Anyway, I think the list isn’t final and that many of the new names won’t go into the final 18 and maybe things will change after Oman’s game or even after Algeria’s game.

In other news,

El Hadary became the first and the only Egyptian playing in Europe to win silverware after his team son won the Belgian cup after coming back from a 2-0 defeat to turn it into a 3-2 victory.

Congratulations to El Hadary, as usual he jumped over the post but he didn’t find someone to sing “or2os ya hadary” or give him a watermelon!!!

This was his final match was Sion, rumors has it that he is playing for Ismaily next year

Here are the match highlights and celebrations