The World Cup Jinx, Part 3: 2002

March 14th, 2010 | by: Hany |

The highly anticipated and controverisal 3rd part of a 5-part topic discussing the main reasons we’ve failed to qualify to the elusive World Cup finals since 1990 in Italy is finally here!

2002

Just a note for the Algerians before I start, You might feel offended by this part. If you are, then I apologize in advance. If you aren’t, well, good for me. I also have to add, If you’re not ready to hear ALOT of criticism, stop reading right now.

Before the group stages, all teams in Africa played a play-off match to enter the group stages, Egypt was drawn against Mauritius. Luckily for us, We played both matches in Egypt, one in Cairo and another in Alexandria and managed to win both games 2-0 and 4-2 respectively.

Mauritius Flag

After getting Mauritius out of our path, we were ready for the draw for the group stages and soon after we learnt who our competitors were. We were drawn in a tough but manageable group containing an in-form Morocco who we hadn’t defeated since 1986 (incredibly this record is still alive and well), an unknown Senegal, the (arguably) weakest Algeria side in history due to them being torn in wars in previous years, and a Namibia side we should’ve defeated home and away with relative ease. After the draw, the public were not too happy with us having to play against 2 north african countries knowing our dreadful record against them. Morocco was our jinx team, the only team that defeated us in our road to success in 1998 at Burkina Faso, and Algeria was famous for always giving 110% against us.

Our first match was away against Senegal. An unknown team back then who had a striker that had funny coloured hair (I’m talking about the now-famous Hadji Diouf). The game ended 0-0 in what was a tight and dull match, a good result when we look at it now considering Senegal was the team that qualified from the group. But ofcourse back then, people thought it was a bad result because it allowed Morocco to take pole position of the group.

Morocco managed to hold out for a draw in Egypt

The Second match was in Cairo against our rivals from the west, the Atlas Lions. A match which we had to win at all costs to edge Morocco to top spot and have a psychological advantage over them in the rest of the games in the group. Unfortunately, the match ended 0-0 as well, with Mido (an exciting 18 year old with massive potential back then) hitting the post with a header from point blank range, and the ever-famous miss by Tarek el Saeed. This miss is still talked and laughed about till this very day. It was the most fascinating miss I had ever witnessed in my life. I still remember it like it was yesterday, unfortunately I can’t find it until now but here’s how it happened. Tarek el Saeed was put through on goal and one-on-one with the keeper. He managed to superbly take the ball round the keeper and had the goal at his mercy with any simple tap-in to (without considering the butterfly effect) reach the World Cup. Suddenly, Tarek lost his balance at the worst time imaginable, and just barely poked the ball in the direction of the goal. 60,000,000 Egyptians held their breaths as the ball slowly but surely rolled into the side-netting… Curses and cries of agony like you’ve never heard before filled the stadium. The players were de-moralized after the miss and the match ended 0-0. We then had Namibia in Windhoek in what should’ve been a walk in the park for us, but as usual, our arrogance got the best of us, and we dropped two vital points. We were actually losing 1-0 until the final 2 minutes when Ibrahim Said struck for us and we managed to salvage a point from the game. I remember the goal quite clearly and how I was close to tears before it.

It wasn’t looking good already and we were starting to lose ground to Morocco and surprisingly Senegal before facing Algeria in Cairo. The match ended 5-2 for Egypt and finally things were looking up for us. Match goals here, second Egyptian goal is a classic and I advise you to watch it. Next we had Senegal in Cairo, We managed to snatch this one after a very tough game courtesy of a Mido header. This was followed by a defeat to Morocco in Rabat by a goal to nil, Mustapha Hadji scored the goal after a beautiful build-up, the striker (I can’t recall his name honestly) laid the ball for Hadji using his head, who placed the ball into the net to the goalkeeper’s left by a powerful shot from just outside the area. I remember being heartbroken and impressed at the same time, a very weird feeling.

Then we had Namibia and I remember before the match the media were demanding a rout because Senegal had thrashed Namibia 4 nil followed by Algeria 3 nil and were running away with the group in terms of goal difference. They got what they asked for and Egypt managed an incredible eight goals to two in Alexandria. I also remember the media not being too happy because it raised many questions as to how we didn’t beat them away. Finally we had Algeria away in Annaba, the match where it all began…

Egypt and Senegal were tied with 12 points each, goal difference favoured us by 2 goals (+9 for us, +7 for them). A win for us would take us through as long as Senegal do not best it by three goals (as we had a better head-to-head record). I don’t want to go into too many details regarding the match, but some things need to be said in order for people to know the truth.

Supporting your team is accepted, terrorizing is not

Algeria had absolutely NOTHING to lose going into this game, they were down and out of the qualifications, and any result would not have any significance for them. People here in Egypt were expecting them not to take it too seriously as we both were arabs and had always been there for each other in wars and in times of dire need. Amazingly, the Algerians were doing their utmost best to stop us from qualifying. Water bottles were thrown at our players from the second they stepped on to the pitch to warm up. Curses and jeers every time an Egyptian player touched the ball. Screams and shouting at the ref for every decision that went our way. It was absolutely stunning, pure hate was driving the Algerians against us and for no apparent reason. Our players were simply astonished.

The first half witnessed one of the funniest (heartbreaking back then) misses you could ever see in your entire life, with Mohamed Omara being the culprit this time round. The ball was crossed from the right inside the 18-yard-box, it was low and passed all Algerian players and the keeper. Mohamed Omara was waiting for it inside the 6-yard-box with the goal not more than 3 yards away from him and no-one defending it. Miraculously, Omara managed to strike the ball from beneath it, with his favoured left foot I may add, and it flew over the bar and into the stands. It was just incredible.

The second half started and at a time when Senegal were leading Namibia (who were doing their best to roll over for the Senegalese) 3-0 at Windhoek, we were awarded a penalty. Mohamed Barakat was fouled inside the area and the ref had no hesitancy in pointing to the spot. Ofcourse he hadn’t realized what he’d done until 2 seconds later. TEN, and I’m not exaggerating, TEN Algerian players confronted him as soon as he gave the decision. If you were a young kid like me back then and you’d never really understood what pure hate is, Algeria was giving a great example for it. I’d never seen such hate in my life, I was overwhelmed, nevermind the players. Anyhow, Mido scored the penalty and we were 1-0 up, and with Senegal being 3-0 up as well, it meant that if things had stayed the same we would’ve made the World Cup.

The game stopped soon after Egypt scored because of the rioting fans, water bottles were being thrown at anything Egyptian inside the stadium, Alaa Nabil got injured in his ear. A disgrace, that’s what happened after the goal, a disgrace to fair play and to FIFA. Naturally, the players lost all concentration and couldn’t stay focused on the rest of the game due to being concerned for their safety. To nobody’s surprise, Algeria scored a goal with 10 minutes remaining and celebrated harder than the Senegal players did after knowing they’ve finally qualified to the World Cup for the first time ever. Senegal had won 5-0 in Windhoek. The match ended with the players trapped inside the stadium, not being able to leave the pitch because of the fans waiting for them next to the exits fully loaded with their water bottles. They had to wait over 45 minutes for the fans to give up hope on harming them and leaving the stadium one by one.Imagine how it felt being one of the players at that moment, not being able to feel sad for missing out on the World Cup… because all your feelings were being occupied by fear for your safety!

After the game, some fans felt it wasn’t enough bomarding the players with water bottles before, during and after the match. They decided to use STONES to attack the players’ bus and smash the windows. Watch in the videos section how a fan was caught smashing the front window of the player’s bus using stones.

Videos (as promised) of the violence during and after the match:

Every football follower with a fully functional brain all round the world was expecting a rematch at a neutral venue just like in 1994 when FIFA decided to have a rematch after a stone (without Video evidence) was thrown at the Zimbabwean keeper in a qualifier in Cairo. But FIFA decided not to take any action against the Algerians who attacked our team in Annaba other than to fine them. A fine for god’s sake, that’s all the compensation we got for being attacked in Algeria. Double standards at it’s finest.

Important Notes:

- To our Algerian brothers and sisters, I hope this article does not stir trouble between us again. This match is now dead and buried and debating it now is useless. I’ve done this article as a special request for Kazi and Bahaa, if it wasn’t for them I would’ve skipped this part to spare us another war of words in the comments section.

- To my Egyptian brothers and sisters, I also hope this article does not bring back horrible memories of that dreaded match, and that it does not spark any feeling of hatred or vengeance towards Algeria. It’s over and nothing can be done about it.

- Finally, The Algerians mentioned in this post do not represent Algeria. The Algerians that represent Algeria and would make her proud are the ones that I spend time daily to talk to (Kazi, Uthman, Nazim, Om Fouad (aka L’Algerienne) and hopefully hicham to name a few).

Any additional videos or missing facts are more than welcome in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for The World Cup Jinx, Part 4: 2006.

End of Part 3.

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 92 comments.

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By Bahaa | March 17th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Like i said I would personally use the loophole myslef….

By Bahaa | March 17th, 2010 at 12:08 pm

Nazim the 2001 game was on live tv for the world to see it wasn’t a homevideo it wasn’t rumours or hear say everything was taped on TV braodcast quality tape and FiFa saw all the proof they needed. Algeria recieved a fine for their very well documented and proven violent attacks. I don’t think Egypt will get more than that… but we’ll see.

By Uthman | March 17th, 2010 at 12:19 pm

hi guys,

2001 was ugly and there is no excuses for it….just like the cairo bus attacking…..
instead of disscussing which nation is crazier than the other and who hate more, we should ask ourselfs why things like this happen in our countries!!
why istnt the same when england plays germany or why didnt the irish still didnt burn down the french embassy in dublin…..do this societys have more brain than us??? are our gouverments not able to controll theire fanatics???
another question i ask is: would the algerian fans in annaba have attacked a european team like italy or would the egy thugs attack the bus of a spanish squad?? i dont think so………this events show us in a brutal way that the arabic societys suffers from a low self confidence….a society who is strong and self confident can accept defaits as they know they are more than just football….i think we arabs are suffering from a sort of self hate…im serious…every time we see an arab fron another arabic country we focus our self hate on him because this person aslong as arabic, stands for all the political and our societys problem, so we start to hate him…but the truth is, we just hate ourselfs, we just dont feel confertable with our arabic personalety thats why we start to hate arabs from other countrys.

By Uthman | March 17th, 2010 at 12:20 pm

srry for my english….i hope you got my point

By DZMouloudiaMCO | March 17th, 2010 at 12:21 pm

The difference is that Algeria admitted the attacks have actually happened.
Egypt is still denying anything wrong happened, and when Zaher was pressured by FIFA he said that the players provoked the fans.

The other difference, is that FIFA had warned Egypt, and had even sent two representative to Cairo, and guess what? the reports these two representative wrote were not in Egypt’s side

On the other hand, I would not be surprised is Egypt gets a light sanction because of the influence Abou Rida has on the FIFA executive committee since he is part of it:)

By Bahaa | March 17th, 2010 at 12:24 pm

The reason Egyptians are so hurt by not qualifying to the world cup this summer Nazim is because we know we could have done something. I think if you’re honest about it you would agree with our recent form against some of the worlds best we could have made it perhaps to the quarterfinals or even the semifinals…. But I don’t thing anyone would trade 4 ACN championships for a WC birth…. Angola togo congo I think even zaire has a wc birth… Going to the world cup is not enough as far as I’m concerend but thats just me….Going to the WC with a realistic opportunity to play and beat some of the worlds best is another thing all together……

By Bahaa | March 17th, 2010 at 12:28 pm

But hey I wasn’t meant to be inshalla we make it next time….we have to win every game home and away that is the only way to insure that we go in this system there is no room for any stumbles…..This time we had one loss in the quals it was an away game in Algeria where we have never won before…. that is not acceptable we can not afford to let a single point go…… Untill FIFA decides that this system is flawed we have to deal with it and play accordingly no team is too small we have to play every team as if we are playing Brazil… thats the only way no more arrogance….

By Bahaa | March 17th, 2010 at 12:36 pm

BTW have you guys heard Zidan scored two more goals in a friendly… this guys is on fire… can anyone say arsenal…..

By Hany | March 17th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

“iTS FUNNY, that whenever you are out of arguments, you have to go back to the Angola game:) lets stop that game Hany, because i can simply reply to you by saying that, most Egyptians will give back 4 of their AC for a chance to play the WC this summer”

I see the 4-0 loss still hurts you. No, the funny thing is that I was being serious and not trying to have a dig at you. Rourawa actually decided to man up after the match and say it wasn’t the ref’s fault that you lost, and for that alone I salute him. Sorry if you can’t handle the truth.
I would never give any ACN for one world cup ticket, why would I give up proof that I’m the best on the continent for one World Cup showing? Don’t try making yourself feel better with false claims, even Ahmed Hassan said the same after winning the third ACN in a row.

“Ok since you are so big on not cheating sanctions, how about Ibrahim Hassan, he was suspended for 5 years, but guess what ? just after the Sudan game, you guys thought that what he did in Algeria was perfectly normal right??? As for principal, you think it was ok for your federation to claim that the attack against our bus was fabricated right??”

When have I ever said that what Ibrahim Hassan did was normal? Here we go again, seeing things the way you want to see them… this time you’re actually imagining things, good for you.
As I said attack Samir and his federation all you want, I’m not a big fan of theirs either. Unlike you, I won’t defend an incompetent man doing a very bad job.

As for forgiving Chaouchi, stop contradicting yourself. We’ve actually forgiven Mido A LONG LONG time after his spat with Shehata, and after countless apologies through the media and after he showed some remorse. What has Chaouchi done for you to forgive him? He had a good match in the Algerian cup? Don’t make me laugh.

By Hany | March 17th, 2010 at 1:55 pm

“On the other hand, I would not be surprised is Egypt gets a light sanction because of the influence Abou Rida has on the FIFA executive committee since he is part of it”

So we are now running FIFA as well aren’t we CAF is in Cairo and safe in our hands, and we are slowly but surely taking over FIFA and will transfer it’s headquarters to Cairo so we can gain total control. You guys just love Conspiracy Theories, don’t you ?

By Hany | March 17th, 2010 at 2:01 pm

Uthman welcome back my friend! (assuming you are the same Uthman aren’t you?)

Where have you been and how have you been doing? Your post opens up alot of doors for discussion I have to say. I guess you MAY have a point about the self-hate thing. We both have terrible governments running our countries, we also both have our fair share of insecure citizens. You know I never thought of it this way before, and after giving it some thought, I think it has a small degree of truth.

I don’t agree with hating our arab personality though, I think we are all proud of being arabs.

I also do have my theories for the hate that has occured between the countries that are different to yours, but I prefer not to say them here. I’ve said them once here in a very shallow and wrong way but they had some honesty in them. Anyway, let’s just stick to football my friend.

By DZMouloudiaMCO | March 17th, 2010 at 2:06 pm

“I see the 4-0 loss still hurts you. No, the funny thing is that I was being serious and not trying to have a dig at you. Rourawa actually decided to man up after the match and say it wasn’t the ref’s fault that you lost, and for that alone I salute him. Sorry if you can’t handle the truth.
I would never give any ACN for one world cup ticket, why would I give up proof that I’m the best on the continent for one World Cup showing? Don’t try making yourself feel better with false claims, even Ahmed Hassan said the same after winning the third ACN in a row.”

I thought we were over that debate, you won the AC and we are in the World cup, as for making my self feeling better:) Hany, i am too busy thinking of the world cup, the ” making your self feeling better applies to you, since i guess, you have nothing to look forward to:) or wait, you are going to get to go to South africa after all to play SA.

“When have I ever said that what Ibrahim Hassan did was normal? Here we go again, seeing things the way you want to see them… this time you’re actually imagining things, good for you.
As I said attack Samir and his federation all you want, I’m not a big fan of theirs either. Unlike you, I won’t defend an incompetent man doing a very bad job.”

I am not talking about yourself:) i am talking about youR federation.
If you think Raourawa is doing a very bad job, now that’s your problem, he looks good to me.

As for Chouchi, i think its an Algerian problem, so i really dont feel like justifying anything to you:)

By Hany | March 17th, 2010 at 3:54 pm

“Hany, i am too busy thinking of the world cup, the ” making your self feeling better applies to you, since i guess, you have nothing to look forward to:) or wait, you are going to get to go to South africa after all to play SA.”

I have alot to look forward to in the summer because my life doesn’t revolve around football sorry to disappoint you. I’d be worried about keeping the scoreline respectable against England if I were you.

“As for Chouchi, i think its an Algerian problem, so i really dont feel like justifying anything to you:)”

Ok then… anything related to Algeria coming from you is going to be deleted from now on, agreed? If you’re gonna play the “it’s an Algerian problem” card, then don’t bring us news about how Belhadj is playing good for the worst ever premier league team, or news about Antar’s team conceding 4 goals by Zidan’s team again.

By DZMouloudiaMCO | March 17th, 2010 at 4:20 pm

Hany,
Knock Yourself Out

By L'Algerienne | March 17th, 2010 at 6:59 pm

Wow, let’s all take a deep breath and relax. It’s been crazy in here. Hany and Bahaa, you guys get mad quickly when the Egyptian team gets criticized. You do the same with our team, you always tear our players apart.

Bahaa, no liked what Chaouchi did and why are you guys making a big deal out of it. He is getting benched and by the way if that headbutt was a real headbutt and not an attempt to headbutt, Codjia would have been knocked out. My opinion, Yes it is wrong, very wong, unprofessional and uncalled for, Algerians did not go out and dance on the street, we did that when we qualified for the world cup and back then we beat you fair and square. We also celebrated when our team came back home after our loss, min hakena nefrah bihoum bardou. They are our team and we love them, yes they make mistakes just like your team. Personally, I am not looking for an apology from Chaouchi, he didn’t offend me that much, he and the rest of the team made us happy by qualifying us to the world cup. I am sure he learned from his lesson and I am confident we will see a better Chaouchi Inshallah.

Hany and Bahaa: we love our team. We are true fans, but don’t try to make your players look like little angels on the field because they’re simply not. my video showed you that.

Hany,
Threatening to delete messages about Algeria is not a good way to debate, afterall, the article you posted is about Algeria and something tells me that you did expect these kind of comments. However, if this is upsetting you than maybe DZmouloudia and I should get the hint and never post any comments on any of your posts. Let me know what you want.

As per the “cheating” thing, anything worked around the system and is legit, is not called cheating. They were smart by doing that because we only have him and we need him. To me, it looks right and that was a good decision.

By L'Algerienne | March 17th, 2010 at 7:41 pm

Hany, in regards to:

“Algeria had absolutely NOTHING to lose going into this game, they were down and out of the qualifications, and any result would not have any significance for them. People here in Egypt were expecting them not to take it too seriously as we both were arabs and had always been there for each other in wars and in times of dire need.”

Please tell me Egyptians were not expecting our players to just let them score and take the game without a fight. How is that soccer. As per expectations, how is that really Algeria’s problem. Maybe you expected too much. I know now why Egyptians can be so bitter, Everytime you tried to win we simply did the best to stop you…lol unbelievable. Please, we are talking about football. This is nothing but a competion, and we are competitors, so leave it at that and don’t bring wars and history into this. I believe that had the situation been reversed then we would see the same thing from Egypt. No doubt, is it conspiracy? No, is it Hate, No. Simply competition. Algeria and Egypt are too much alike. One might say they’re exactly the same.

By MoMONEY | March 17th, 2010 at 8:51 pm

Uthman hit the nail on the head. Until Arabs learn to discuss these questions in an honest way, no matter how bad the answers make them look, then progress will be slooooooowwwwww

Posted from United States

By Hisham | March 17th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

MoMoney? Slow?! Try non existent.

Posted from United States

By MoMONEY | March 18th, 2010 at 12:05 am

yea lol thats probably more realistic. Egyptians need to realize that egyptians can be wrong. Same with Algerians. Same with Muslims. Same with Christians. Siding with somebody or some group because they are “the same” as you, will always lead to bias and lack of respect for logic

Posted from United States

By MoMONEY | March 18th, 2010 at 12:06 am

And to be honest the whole Sudan game and the aftermath had me questioning nationalism in general. Dont get me wrong, I love Egypt still but it brought up a lot of questions for me…

Posted from United States

By Kazi | March 18th, 2010 at 3:04 am

Wow, reading this post is like listening to a dysfunctional family argue.

By hicham | March 18th, 2010 at 3:52 am

yes kazi. it’s surreal…

looking fwd to the 2010 jinx!

By Hany | March 18th, 2010 at 6:08 am

L’Algerienne, “too seriously” implies that we didn’t expect that amount of hate coming from an arab nation. Nothing less, nothing more. It doesn’t imply that we were expecting you to let us win (as I’ve already said in the comment section), but we weren’t expecting you to show this much hatred for us. There was no reason for you to do that, on the contrary, you should’ve been friendly to us (because of our history together in wars) and used the flowers reception you used in 2009. Why didn’t you do that back then? Don’t tell me it’s competition, because that’s just plain dumb. It was hate and we all know it.

By Hany | March 18th, 2010 at 6:16 am

L’Algerienne, I don’t think there was any hint in me saying don’t post news about Algerians here. Yes, I don’t want you or Nazim or anyone else for that matter posting news about any Algerian players here, because obviously when we start discussing it, you guys get hurt by the truth and say indirectly that it’s none of our business. Okay, if it’s none of ur business then please don’t bother us with them. You are more than welcome to discuss anything else on here. Hope you got the message as I think it’s clear enough. Don’t try twisting it (like you did with Chaouchi’s ban) and seeing it the way you want to see it as you are experts in doing that.

By Hany | March 18th, 2010 at 8:23 am

Nazim, I’m sick of your bias and you not being able to use your brain when it comes to Algeria.

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