Squad for Zambia & Paraguay’s preview

In the middle of the u-20 world cup hype taking over the country, we shouldn’t forget that we have a very crucial game against Zambia and that our senior national team is already in camp for the game.

The squad was announced this weekend:

Goalkeepers: Essam Al-Hadari (Ismaili), Al-Hani Soliman (Ittihad), Mahmoud Aboul-Saoud (Mansoura).

Defenders: Hani Saied (Zamalek), Wael Gomaa, Sherif Abdul-Fadil, Ahmed Fathi, Sayed Moawad (Ahli), Moatassem Salem (Ismaili), Ahmed Saied ‘Ouka’, Ahmed Kamal (Harras Hodoud), Ahmed Al-Muhammadi (ENPPI).

Midfielders: Mohamed Barakat, Mohamed Abou-Treika, Ahmed Hassan (Ahli), Mohamed Hommos (Ismaili), Mohamed Shaaban (Petrojet), Abdul-Aziz Tawfik (ENPPI), Ahmed Eid (Harras Hodoud), Hosni Abd-Rabou (Ahli Dubai).

Strikers: Amr Zaki (Zamalek), Salah Amin (Gaish), Mohamed Al-Gabbas (Lierse), Ahmed Raouf (ENPPI).

With the exception of Salah Amin and Sherif Abdel Fadil, there is no much changes.

Amr zaki is back, I don’t know if it is a good or a bad thing, he didn’t convince in recent matches and continued to be a trouble maker; I hope he focuses with the national team because we need him.

We are playing against Mauritius this Friday.

BREAK

Now back to our world cup; we will be playing Paraguay as we return home in Cairo stadium and the tickets are all sold out which means it is going to be an exciting game to watch.

A win would put us in the second round; however a draw won’t be that bad because after watching all group teams, I guess Paraguay is the toughest and if we can get through them, Italy won’t cause us trouble,

However, we need to work on our defense and Salah Solieman and Ahmed Hegazy need to cooperate and communicate more to prevent these silly defensive errors; also we need the players to focus more on teamwork and stop this individuality; especially, Mohamed Talaat.

Soukop said there will be some changes but didn’t reveal what will they be but I guess they are going to be more midfields and less strikers given the attacking abilities of Paraguay despite the bad luck they faced in Italy’s game.

The fans will be an important factor in the game, although I appreciate what happened in Burg El Arab, Cairo Stadium is a different thing, the fans here are more passionate, loud and enthusiastic; plus, it feels more comfortable playing here than anywhere else; fan pressure proved to be an effective weapon, especially in this age as players lack the experience of dealing with it.

Our opponent is good, fast, skillful and tactically advanced and we need to reduce our mistakes to the minimum and be careful of Santander and Ramirez, both are lethal strikers if given the space and chance.

Sorry for the brief post but with so much going on, it’s hard to find some free time.