Egypt King of Africa

Egypt made it to the seventh title today after beating Ghana 1-0 in the 85th minute.

I have not seen the game as I was at an airplane travelling during the game, but I will look forward to see the replay and write about it.

In general, I give the biggest credit for all of the last three titles for Egypt for a great wonderful coach that I respect a lot "Hasan Shahata"

He always been very discipline with his team, yet with great communication and motivating ability. His players listen to him and trust him a lot. He never went into rabbish talk, even during the Algeria Egypt madness. His position against Mido was the best thing he ever did for the team to enforce a discipline. Finally, he play with very good balance, between defence and attack.

Congratulations Egypt

Support to Togo against CAF

Every channel, paper, blog and TV discussion talked about the outragous CAF decision to ban Togo from the next African Cups. What's more funny that they were fined for USD 50,000. It created big ange and rage among everyone, not only Togo fans. It is one of the strangest every decisions in the history of the game.

Togo team but suffered a gun fire attack at Angola for 30 minutes. Bus driver and two officials were killed and one keeper had fatal injuries, other players were injured. Togo said it will appeal against this ban.
The other incident of this sort that I know is the Columbian league for 1990 when mysterious bullet went from one of the fans to kill the referee during the game. The whole season was cancelled.

Egyptian and Algerian childish media

I am happy that both medias passed the stage of agitating the crowd against each other, and did what a good media should do, in terms broadcasting sensible people with reasonable opinions.

However, when it comes to the game itself, they are still acting very childish, living in their own bubble distant from reality. I felt I am listening to second elementary grade kids. For both of them I say: grow up and talk more modern language of today's game, especially your role is to educate big base of fans and shape thier sport values.

Here are the childish comments and my reply to them:
From Egypt:
I saw the game on Jzeera sport channel2, which had the Egyptian commentator, and the more Egypt showed signs of winning the game, the more he kept repeating "and this proves, that Egypt was the one that deserved to qualify to the world cup".

For that I say: well, sorry, winning a game in African Cup in a great way does not qualify you to the world cup. Egypt played three games vs. Algeria, lost two and won one. I saw all three games, and like most of the neutral fans, I say Egypt only deserved to win the game in Cairo.

Egypt more or less did the same in 1998, 2004, 2008 and may be in 2010, to win the African Cup, and failed to qualify to the big mondial.

Guess what? Denmark in 1989 did historical friendly games, beating Brazil 4-0 only few days after beating Sweden 6-0. Anyone seen those results and wonderful goals, would have nominated them to win the world cup.

But, when it comes to where it counts, Denmark let go so many easy points, and the FIFA calculator didn't qualify them to the world cup. Brazil and Sweden did and played in one group in 1990 WC.

From Algeria:

I was watching Algerian channels and reading some papers checking their reactions, and hoping that there will be no campaign to fire their great coach that I respect a lot.

But, all channels and media kept saying that the Ref did big mistakes, ruined the game, and was so biased towards the Egyptian team.

For that I say:
1. Egypt was better even before the PK, it was obvious that the goal is coming. They were so focused and determined to score. It was clear that it is a matter of time before Egypt score.

2. Cot Devoir lead the game vs. Ghana 3-0 (then Ghana scored) while it had 10 players only. Actually Cameroon beat Argentina in 1990 and Brazil in 2000 with 9 players only.

3. I might have accepted that Algeria is so exhausted after Cot Devoir game, or if the game ended 0-1, but to lose it totally and end a 0-4, it poses a question mark.

In my opinion, Algeria is a great team, but needs to re-organize defence and keep focused in the game. When they lose it, they lose it all. They lost it against Egypt game in Cairo in first half (psychologically). Who saw Algeria in Cairo and Algeria in Sudan realized that he was watching two teams from two different planets.

What did Dunga say after losing to Argentina 0-3 in the 2008 Olympics?
"we have to admit, not every time you can mark Messi, Argentina deserved it"

What did Lazaroni say after Denmark 0-4 defeat in 1989?
"it is clear that we have a problem in defence, this why I introduced a fifth defender in 1990 WC"

Egypt 4 Goals Algeria 3 Red Cards

Zidan, the Egyptian skillful player who made the goal of the 2008 final against Cameroon and today he scored the second goal, he said after the game: "today I have played the most important game of my life, we killed ourselves into the game"

This explains it all, and as I have mentioned before, it is a psychological game. Egypt went with full focus and determination. Algeria in the other hand lost focus toooo early, and got three deserved red cards.

When the first goal came from a penalty kick, and with red card to Algeria, it was very obvious, that the game is over. Later, Egypt scored two wonderful goals before the keeper was sent-off too from a silly tackle. With the closing seconds, the new star Gido made 4-0.

Egypt now, 18 games without defeat in African cups. They are highly nominated to win the cup.
Ironically, last defeat for Egypt in African cups was against Algeria in 2004 1-2.

Did Algeria deserve to go to the world cup? Yes, indeed in my opinion.
Yet, Egypt beat Italy earlier this year, and their youth team beat the Italian youth team too.

Was the African World Cup draw fair and efficient to take the best African teams to the world cup?
No indeed! (as I said, this is something I wanna write about soon)

Crazy keeper moment

As we will be waiting for the semi-finals tomorrow, here is something to have a smile on



(keep an eye on the match clock to see how crazy it was)

Wonderful video of Algeria Cot Devoir game

Algeria Cot Devoir Quarter Final game was one of best games ever played in African Cups. Enjoy this video fo the game that shows all important moments with Algerian passionate commentator : )

Algeria Egypt high voltage warning ! ! ! ! !

When the African cup draw was released, there were big relief in Angola as well as most of the Arab world (including Egypt and Algeria) that both teams were in different groups. No one wanted to go through the same madness that we seen the WC qualifications.

Ironically now, both teams will face each other again, and in a much critical and tougher game, than any of the group stage games. The semi-final of African Cup 2010.

I hope that both sides take this game as a chance to calm down the situation, not to escalate it. I got a feeling that both sides will take measures to calm it down. (what i am watching in different channel medias, that they are speaking very positive about the game and correcting the silliness of the WC game)

anyhow, here are few thoughts about this game and the cup in general:
- Egypt was more impressive in the group stages. Algeria started with a disaster but then they picked up the tempo and showed up a deserved qualification.

- Algeria was far more impressive on the quarter final beating the strongest African side today, Cot Devoir, and in the most difficult way, in the most entertaining game of the tournament.

- Both played an extra time, so both will enter the game with same conditions.

- Both got great keepers. Egyptian defence is more organized, but Algerian midfield is stronger and exert more pressure than the Egyptian side. Both teams got skillful good strikers.

- Both got great local coaches who always prepare the team very well psychologically. I think this game will be a game of psychology more than technical football.

Apart from Egypt Algeria game, here are few other thoughts:

- Algeria Egypt Ghana and Nigeria in the semi final. Zambia was in par with Nigeria, so it was almost there. Did you notice? three of those five teams were in one of the five groups in WC qualifications. (that is Algeria, Egypt and Zambia). I always challenged Africa WC. I will write a full post about it later on, as we get closer to the world cup.

- Ghana and Nigeria are in equal chances to reach the final. I favour more that Ghana can do much better in the world cup. But for this semi-final, I think they have equal chances.

- My friend brought my attention to the African keepers. In the past we saw some of the great keepers from African teams especially from Cameroon (|Thomas Nkonno). However, whoever saw Egypt Cameroon game seen how fragile Cameroon keeper was. The keeper is to be blamed for 2 of the 3 goals. Even the second goal, it might be saved with a great keeper. This tournament were really upsetting on keepers level (apart from the north Africans, Egypt and Algeria who got great talents).

Africa proves that FIFA was right about Video replays

Today and yesterday in QF African Cup were crazy and proved that FIFA is right, there is no need for video replays. Cot Devoir scored a goal that was disallowed against Algeria at the 120th minute while Egypt scored in Cameroon after 4 minutes of the extra time, goal was allowed. W

Watch and enjoy : )

Ronaldo 'not famous' wonderful goals

Was the Brazilian Ronaldo a great player? or was he way over rated? I had a Brazilian friend in the mid-90s who used to tell me that Ronaldo performance at that age was better than Pele. Same for what some start to say about Messi today. Anyhow, these are few videos for not very famous goals for Ronaldo with Brazil at his early career.

I always say: soccer followers got very short memory!

This is from the 4-2 win over Ghana in 1996 Olympic games:


what a goal against Lithuania


and a smart cool goal in a friendly vs. England


by the way, you noticed that he used to be called as Ronaldinho at his early days.

here are some more cool not very known goals at his early career:

Amazing one vs. Denmark in 1996
Clever quick response goal vs. Iceland
Very nice goal against Poland in a 4-2 friendly
I remember this cool goal in 3-3 friendly with Italy
Nice goal in the Olympic vs. Hungary
wonderful trick vs. costa rica 97
this wonderful goal vs. Germany in a friendly just before 1998 WC was may be the end of the Ronaldo "injury free" player. With 1998 WC he started to accumelate injuries, and he was never the same again.

Dunga coaching DNA

This goal has been broadcasted so many times giving all the credit to Rivaldo. I have seen that goal so many times after that in the TV or in the net, and was surprised now one ever mentioned Dunga. I have uploaded this video to show that when the game got really tough, and it was 2-2, Dunga was screaming on Rivaldo to move into the depth of the Danish half. Then, he guided him again where to move, before scoring his famous goal.



Dunga was really the 'heart' of the Brazilian team

Total confusion on African Cup qualification criterias

There were total confusion yesterday on calculating who should qualify to the quarter final after last group games finished. Gabon players were celebrating qualification to the QF, only when few moments later they found out that, in reality, they need to check out from the hotel and take the first plane home. Watch the Gabon players tears and shock

This means that the players and coach of Gabon might have thought even with 1-2 defeat, they are still okay and played for the draw, hoping Cameroon Tunisia game will continue with a 2-2 tie.

The players were not the only one who were confused,

 I was watching Alarabiya channel, and the two guests were high ranked professionals from the region:  Rabeh Madjer who scored the winning for Algeria against German in 1982 WC and Ahmad Alkas, a key player in Egypt 1990 WC team. They were not any less confused, and debating who should qualify and the clarity of the system.

I haven't seen that the qualification criterias is confusing, here is the tie-breaking criteria:

if two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:

1.points earned in the matches between the teams concerned;

2.goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned;

3.number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned;

4.goal difference in all group matches;

5.number of goals scored in all group matches;

6.fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards;

7.drawing of lots by the organising committee.

Now, the whole confusion came out of making this mini-group of three:
Zambia clearly will qualify. But, then, some people applied the same filtering criteria again (so Cameroon and Gabon in one group alone), where Gabon defeated Cameroon 1-0.  But the criteria does not allow for that.

Now, the whole issue, is why to apply this filtering criteria on a group of four, and don't apply it for a group of three??!!!!!!!!!

Seems even Alan Giresse, the French Coach of Gabon, who used to be French teammate of Michel Platini was confused himself, poor Gabon players.

Apart from all of that, Gabon, who rarely had a place between the bigs in Africa, introduced very interesting decent team to this cup, thumb up to them.

Bad news for Spain chances to win the WC

Pele nominated Spain to win the next world cup. Everytime Pele predicted a world cup winner, the team ends up in a big upset.

- 1994: Pele insisted that Columbia would win the WC,  Columbia left from the group stages.

- 1998: Pele predicted Spain, and they left from group stages.

- 2002: Pele said France is the favorites, they left again from group stages.

- 2006: He said Brazil or England. Both were not impressive and were big upset to theri fans.

- 2010: Pele is hinting about Spain!!!!!!!!!!!! bad luck for Spain : )

well, speaking seriously, in my opinion, Pele is a PR brand, he sells his name to commercials by millions. So, all of his comments are not really related to soccer as much as PR diplomacy and media bla bla bla bla ....

I never take his comments seriously!

Egypt scored a memorable goal in African Cup

Egypt always manage great performance in African cups in a way or another, and always miss World Cup qualifications.

9 points and 7 goals from 3 games in group stages. Very impressive, and today first goal was something to remember

does not remind you of another wonderful goal from 2002 WC?

Samba star in the 1990s: "Paulo Silas"

As nothing major happened in the African cup in last couple of day, no surprises, no amazing skills to highlights, I would like to take a little break and travel to the past.

Paulo Silas was a wonderful Brazilian midfielder. He won 1985 Youth WC under 20, he played 1986 and 1990 WCs. In 86 he was too young to star. In 90 somehow, he lost his glare, and only played few minutes despite wearing the No 10 shirt. His major mark was winning Copa America 1989 in Rio De Janeiro. May be that was his peak together with a team that witnessed the birth of big stars like Romario, Bebeto, Tafarell, Jurginho and much more.

Despite not having very rich history with Brazil, but Silas had wonderful touches and he scored some memorable goals and moments. Here are some of the Silas WOW goals:


Astonishing goal direct from the corner kick:


Another amazing one from the corner kick:


sometimes he scored great long range shots, but he used his mind a lot, and here is another one and sometimes with a lot of passion.

Ronaldinho on waiting list for South Africa airplane

Dunga to Ronaldinho: okay okay!! one more game like this and i will put you in the team to South Africa.

Ronaldinho scored a wonderful hatrick against Siena. The third goal was a special one.

Messi "as drinking water" goals

Messi scored 101 goals with Barca after his last two goals in 4-0 victory for Barca against Seville.

What is amazing is his ability to make the very difficult moves and make them look as easy "as drinking water".

Fixing games scandal proof : )

As today's African cup goes without anything to mention, Nigeria and Egypt won in their games, here is something to cheer with :)

"Roeselare Belgian keeper"

Cot Devoir: 10/10 with 10 players only

After watching Cot Devoir and Ghana game, I started to get the feeling that we will watch a great 2010 WC. Both teams played best and strongest game so far, very high quality football.

Both will introduce better teams than the 2006 WC.Cot Devoir seemed very confident and knew what they were doing. Reminded me of Cameroon or Nigeria in the mid 1990s.

Three wonderful goals by Cot Devoir, I was impressed especially by the first goal: team work, simple passes, penetrating the empty spaces, and maturity (the final pass).

Wonderful skills in CAN 2010 as the tempo picks up

All the teams that qualified to the WC were not convincing in their first games. Algeria was the biggest flop. Nigeria big disappointment but at least they lost to a big team. Cameroon and Cot Devoir were not convincing.

However, I don't like to run into judgements, what I think that the teams didn't pick up their tempo yet. I think the second round will show the real calibar.

Algeria came back with very good game after their 1-0 victory over Mali. Morals are very high again.
The champion is producing very nice games, and it will improve as we go in.

Egypt Nigeria game had the best goals so far but what I want to show are special skills from Angola Malawi game yesterday. These sort of skills among the things that makes African Cup a joy to follow every time

Mali stunned Angola with 4-4 amazing tie

"In my 42-year career as coach this is the first time something like this has happened," Said Angola's Portuguese coach Manuel Jose.

Angola was leading 4-0 till the 79th minute, when Mali came back amazingly to tie 4-4

In my life I can remember few games like this:
- 2005 Champion League final Liberpool vs. AC Milan: the first half was 3-0 for Milan when Liverpool scored 3 goals in the second half in a span of 6 minutes. Later then won by PKs.

- 1989 Youth WC U-20 Nigeria vs. Soviet Union: Soviet Union was leading 4-0 till 25 minutes from the end. Nigeria scored 4 goals in 25 minutes, one of them was an incredible free kick. Nigeria won by PKs.
I saw that game at the stadium as it was in Saudi Arabia.

- 1982 WC Semi Final Germany France 3-3: I consider this also amazing enough. The game ended 1-1 and at the extra time France scored twice and it was apparent that France will play their first WC final in their history. Amazingly, Germany scored 2 goals and almost scored the winner. Later they won by PKs.

Till now, the first three games in CAN 2010 were surprising: Mali tie, Malawi beating Algeria 3-0 and Burkina Faso ties 0-0 with the favourites Cot Devoir.

Very strange refereeing incident

This strange incident happened in a Qatari cup about two weeks ago between Al-Sadd and Sailiyah when the ref decided that the striker did an unsporting play by making fun of opponent while scoring a goal.
Goal disallowed and player was given red card (second yellow)!!!!!!

I have checked if such an incident can deserve a yellow card, might be according to refereeing rules:

"unsporting behavior" - this includes hard fouls; holding an opponent or deliberately handling the ball for the purpose of preventing an opponent from gaining possession of the ball; faking an injury; saying things that are designed to confuse or distract an opponent; harassment (such as jumping around, shouting or making gestures to intentionally distract an opponent; jumping in front of a corner kick, free kick or throw-in; worrying the goalkeeper or trying to prevent him from putting the ball into play; & adopting a threatening posture), gaining an unfair advantage by leaning on, climbing on the back of, or holding a teammate or the goal; blatant cases of holding and pulling an opposing player or his uniform; any action designed to deceive the Referee; and behavior which in the Referee's judgment is unsporting or causes an unfair advantage"

May be the yellow card is deserved, but I don't see the reason to disallow the goal.

CAN 2010 groups in a nutshell

Togo withdrew (understandably) from the African cup after the gunfire attack on their bus. There has been conflicting news about the number of fatalities in the attack. It seems that three people has died, the bus driver and two of the delegates of Togo team. The substitute keeper seems to have bad serious injuries.

Anyhow, tomorrow is the first day of the cup, and among the rest of the 15 teams, I have put some ratings, thumb ups and downs.

Few comments to explain my opinion:

- Angola: one thumb only for being the host. They might make it to QF or SF but not more.

- Algeria: great team, but I don't think that this African cup is their aim. It is the best training ground for their group. They might reach as far as the SF.

- Cameroon: very impressive and balanced. Great performance in the WCQ, experienced stars, good history in previous African cup. They take it very seriously. One of favourites.


- Gabon: young tactical team worth a lot of respect. It is in par with Tunisia.

- Tunisia: I qill quote Najeeb Limam (legendary star in 1978 famous Tunisian WC team), he said that the team is young and promising, but for the future, not now. It will hardly make it to the second round.

- Cot Devoir: great team and promising. I think it is bit over-rated though. It has good chance of winning the cup.

- Ghana: I think Ghana will be such a strong team, not only for CAN 2010 but next summer too. They got a young team that they just won the youth WC mixed with an experienced team that been to 2006 WC.

- Egypt: always great in African cups. They are making a lot of promises. However, when a team makes such promises, you know it is all PR media. I think the team is too consumed after their exit from Algeria from the WCQ. They already won African cups too many times. The next logical motivation was the WC. Some of their stars are missing. I think they will make it to QF only and return home.

- Nigeria: Yes, only one thumb up. Nigeria today is not like the past. Actually if Tunisia were a little more efficient, Nigeria would be out of WC. Nothing was impressive in their WCQ road.

So, at the end, I think the cup will be between Cameroon, Ghana and Cot Devoir.

My favourites are Ghana.

"wanna go home" theme for African cup 2010

"We are still at hospital. We were machine-gunned like dogs and had to remain hidden under our seats for around 20 minutes to avoid the bullets. were shot, although we had two police coaches on our sides. There are two injured players and also some staff." as described by Nantes and Togo striker Thomas Dossevi.

"We are still in shock. If the security is not sure, then we will be leaving tomorrow. I don't think they will be ready to give their life. We will discuss everything as a team and we will take a decision that we think is good for our career, is good for our life and good for our family." Adebayor added.

This could be the worst ever start for any soccer competition I heard of. This makes Algerian bus incident in Cairo like child plays. Togo bus driver was killed, news about two or three Togo players were injured as rebels opened gunfire on Togo bus. European clubs are running after their players trying to pull them out, players wanna go home. I don't blame them of course.

I was about to get prepared to predict which teams will leave early and which will make it to the final stages, but with this tragedic incident, seems, nothing can be predicted. All teams wanna go home early.

With such an atmosphere, we might not seen many great moments like those in the past:

As a reminder to which extent team emotions might impact performance, remember Cameroon in 1994 WC? They did a great opening against Sweden and tyed 2-2. No one can blame them for losting to Brazil 94 by three goals. But the disasterous performance came in the third game losing to Russia 1-6. Later, it was apparent that six of the team players were unhappy in Cameroon and tried to stay back as they were facing financial problems with their national team.

The Lions are Missing in Action

This is the first African Cup of Nations since 1996 that will be without "Lions of the Atlas" (Morocco). The national team has been declining slowly in previous few years though they managed to reach the African final in 2004 but lost to Tunisia by PKs.

However, the last year was may be the worst in last 2 or 3 decades. In WCQ they were with Cameroon, Togo and Gabon. They could not win in any game, losing twice to Gabon (1-2 and 1-3) to Togo (0-1) before the most disasterous result in many years: losing at home by 0-2 to Cameroon in the last game of the group. This created big dissastisfaction of the football in Morocco in general. They didn't only lose their WC spot, but their African Nation Cup spot too.

To know where the Moroccon fans came from and what is their standards and why they would be frustrated, I would like to take you through two games videos:

- First: last decade two weeks prior to the 1998 WC France lost to Morocco at Casablanca in a small tournament. The team that won the world cup few weeks later, hardly tied 2-2 with the Lions before losingin PKs. Bassir, their skillful passionate strikers scored two wonderful goals. Enjoy the first goal and the second one.


- Second: I would like to take you to even a more impressive performance. It is in April 1999 when Netherlands lost home in a friendly to Morroco 1-2 . Netherlands had great performance in 1998 WC and in Euro 2000 reaching the semi-finals of both competitions.

The game was strong and Morocco had a wonderful display of skills and all the three goals of were very nice. Again Bassir made the first and scored the second, and hit the post in another kick.


The African Cup will be without Morocco, but I hope to see their strong team again there and in the World Cup.

Sensational theme song for 2010 WC

A wonderful theme song about the coming world cup with wonderful moments and memories from 2006 mondial



link inspired by http://www.soccerblog.com/ site

Going to SA 2010 WC? Becareful of faked tickets!

Are you planning to go to the big carnaval next summer? Hotels, airline tickets, visa, pocket money, ......, and add to the list "original WC tickets". The last thing you want is to be told that you cannot enter the stadium by the security people.

There were 100s of sites selling faked WC tickets in the net. It is expected that you will see more and more of these sites as we approach the mondial.

You can get the tickets through FIFA website directly, or specific approved tour operators by the FIFA. You can also get something more through the hospitality FIFA programs.

Get more information and insights on this issue in this link.

Cassilas two "lifetime saves" in one night

Many people consider Iker Cassilas as the best keeper in the world today though Real Madrid lost it all in 2009. The Champion League, La Liga and Spanish cup. Even in this game, last Oct Real lost to Seville 1-2, but Iker had 2 outstanding saves

What's amazing to me is his position in the first save, and the way he was able to read the striker mind in the second one.

A decade of football in cartoons : )

2001

2002

2005

Translation:

Those who play table football 0

Those who play real football 3

(don't forget to click on read more to continue with the rest of the decade)

2006

2007

2008

2009

and something about 3 decades of the most covered topic

 

translation: Maradona Love, a film about unconditional love