Last Wednesday was a very sad day for Egyptian football. Algeria beat Egypt 1-0 in the play-off game to reach the World Cup for the third time. Egypt's best footballing generation ever didn't. I was almost reduced to tears after the game. I am after all a fan. Football rarely has this impact on me. It can always change my mood for sure but never frustrate me as much. I recall my eyes watering twice after a football game. In 1990 after England knocked us out of the World Cup with a Mark Wright header and when AC Milan lost the Champions League (no, not in Istanbul) against Ajax to a Patrik Kluivert goal in the 88th minute. Yeah I don't know why I cried either. My frustration came from the fact that after all this I was right. Never have I wished more to be wrong and for Mr. Shehata to prove he is the mastermind tactician he so blatantly is not. You can blame who you want for our failure to qualify, Algerians, players, referee or luck. I blame Hassan Shehata.
Where to begin? His failure was not in mismanaging this final play-off match. It was throughout the qualifications. Egypt has played the same game of football for the entire campaign. We played poorly and below our potential in all 7 games. If you bring your memory back to the Zambia game in Cairo, where it all began. We had no midfield couldn't control the game, couldn't create chances and Zambia ripped us to shreds on the counter attack. They got a deserved equalizer and if it was not for some luck they would have won. (My father told me then that it was never going to happen, should have listened). We followed this up by a humiliating defeat to Algeria. We played a decent first half with Trieka and Zidan combining perfectly but without any real menace or chance creation. After going down by a goal it all went bad. Mr. Shehata is no tactician, he panics and eveything goes to hell. He couldn't contorl Algeria and hit them on the break when it was 0-0 and he couldn't attack to get a draw after going a goal down. In trying to attack he left us wide open at the back and we got hit by 2 more goals. This was a turning point in the qualification. Algeria took momentum and self belief from that game and never looked back(they had started with a poor 0-0 draw away to Rwanda). There was a break after this from the qualification and Egypt went to the Confederations Cup.
Egypt faced Brazil then Italy and we managed an incredible showing against Brazil and beat Wold Champions Italy. Shehata inadvertently had discovered a gold mine. Injuries to all of his top strikers forced him to play a 3-6-1 formation with Zidan as a lone striker supported by Trieka form the midfield with three holding midfielders that included Hassan, Shawky, Homos or Hosny to control the game. This worked perfectly it gave a lot of freedom to the wing backs Mowaad and Fathi (Mohamady)to bomb forward, with Trieka free to roam as he pleases in midfield and the pace of Zidan. We looked scary in attack and solid defensively. Egypt's holding midfielders were not just grunts. They could pass and shoot the ball adding extra support in attack when needed (Shawky and Homos both scored in this tournament) It might have not sounded pretty but it was perfect. Only when Mr. Shehata decided to change this against the U.S.A were we convincingly beaten. If you recall we played the same game we had continued to play afterwards and versus Zambia and Algeria previously. Drained after playing both Italy and Brazil Shehata decided to play with just 2 holding midfielders and opted for 2 strikers plus Trieka. We lost control of the game and couldn't even defend a theoretical 2 goal advantage and lost 3-0 without testing Tim Howard once!Live and learn I thought, but it seemed Shehata had the memory of a gold fish.
In Cairo we beat an unlucky Rwanda (yes, unlucky. take a look at the game) 3-0 by sheer determination. Again it was haphazard and thanks to the referee we managed to score a very late penalty and an injury time goal. Due to the results of Algeria we had to win all our remaining games and then some.We went to Rwanda next with all of our top choice strikers out and Zidan was banned by our brilliant Coach because he decided to stay with his club and not show up for a firendly against Guniea that put into highlight all of our flaws both in attack and defense. It ended 3-3, Guniea finished bottom of their qualification group. I can't recall a single chance we created against Rwanda. We played poorly and luck was on our side and Ahmed Hassan scored after a skirmish in the penalty area. I said then that our midfield was poor and we would live to regret goinng a goal up and wasting time in my article When the Going gets Tough. We all regret it now!
Against Zambia it was even worse. Same game plan. We couldn't go forward and left ourselves wide open at the back and would have lost convincingly if not for Hadary. We won with our only shot on goal (more info in Zambia 0 Hadary 1). Other results meant Egypt needed to beat Algeria by 2 goals to force a play-off. After scoring an early goal we again played the same game we have been playing. No midfield, no chance creation and very poor overall. Hadary again kept us in it and Meteb scored a goal at the death to keep us in it. Luck was on our side one last time (The Aftermath for more details regarding the game)
Then came the final game. All of Egypt was hopeful. We had made a tremendous comeback. Morale in the Algeria camp has to be low. Guess what? Hassan Shehata again played the same game. It was his third time playing Algeria and it seemed he had learned nothing. He tinkered with his team again. A team he has been coaching for 4 years now. I would have understood if he started with the same formation as the last game, although I would prefer Fathi on the flanks for protection. But no way, this is Shehata. He decided to go with a new midfield combo. Not in any game since he took charge of Egypt did he ever play Fathi and Hassan as the only holding midfielders together and again he LOST THE MIDFIELD! Where was Homos? The player who started the last game never even played this one!. Where was Shehata's 3-6-1, his masterpiece? Surly he could control Algeria with it.
He opted to bench Zidan for some reason although this was to be an open game (prior to Egypt conceding). There was going to be space and Zidan's pace and dribbling ability would have been lethal. The only time he got the ball in a good position he created something out of nothing and Meteb missed a glorious chance. We proceeded to play the same game. Random play, no tactics and long balls. If he wanted to play long balls then what was the point of passing six passes before hitting a long ball? Wasting time while we were down? and if Shehata wanted to play the long ball strategy then why not get Mido to help you out. He is a real threat in the air!
Hadary also wasted 25minutes by hitting the ball straight to the oppositions keeper! What the hell was that about? It took our manager that long to notice that this is idiotic. We became much more dangerous as soon as we passed the ball around. We conceded against the run of play at the end of the half.
The second half Shehata had to do something. He decided to play Zidan for Zaki and Hosny for Fathi? As we have come to expect a straight swap.. Taking Zaki off was strange as although I'm a fan of Meteb it would be a no brainer to take him off as he hasn't played a full 90minutes for almost a year. Changing players in the exact same position. we wasted 2 changes and we did not become more dominant. The coach of Algeria tried to help us out by starting to defend too deep and taking off one of his forwards. Shehata's luck had truly run out. His changes didn't work! He even decided to change things just as we started playing better. Hani Said pushed into the midfield for support and his impact was very noticeable. The former Bari man originally plays in midfield and caused a bit of havoc with his passing and runs. Egypt missed a glorious chance after Hany had put Trieka through and Hosny missing the follow up with the goal at his mercy. We also managed one or two decent free-kicks. Shehata took off Saka for Eid AbdelMalek whose sole purpose was to pass the ball to Mohamady for the cross. Hani went back to defense. Nothing had changed from the first game. We again failed to capitalize on their 2 central defenders clearing to the edge of their own box. No one was there for the shot. Why was Zidan taking corners. He crossed 4 identical corners in the same area were not a single Egyptian player was there. Apparently he never took corners before! Why wasn't Moawad put into play. It was obvious he had the upper hand over Algeria's right back. The list goes on. We continued to look poor up to the final whistle. Egypt's dream was over.
My point here is that it was not the final game that knocked us out. We were poor in all our games and there is an old saying in football that throughout a season decisions even themselves out. Meaning; effects of the calls and breaks for and against a team cancel one another at the end. The same goes with luck we were lucky to reach a play-off game and we were unlucky to lose it. It is probably the most game we had clear cut chances in. There should be no pats on the back for Hassan Shehata though. He failed to qualify from the easiest qualification group in Africa. His 2nd seed Zambia didn't make it through the group stage in last years CAN 2008. Algeria hadn't even qualified for the last 2 Nations Cup. I remember my friends and I celebrated when we learned of the draw! Egypt lead by Shehata gifted qualification to Algeria. It was easy, a win against Zambia, one more goal against Rwanda and we would have been there. His tentative approach and inability to learn from games cost us qualification. Supporters of Shehata will tell you he won two CAN in 2006 and 2008. I tell them bravo. He must have done something right at some point.
In 2006 it was on home soil and in a World Cup year with a lot of the top teams focused on the world cup. Shehata also had 7 starters from Ahly who at the time was the most dominant force in African Club football. Not only that, Ahly was playing fantastic football as well. Hadary, Gomaa, AbdelWahab (R.I.P) Barakat, Shawky, Trieka and Meteb. In 2008 Egypt got a lot of momentum after the 4-2 win versus Cameroon and it is much easier to keep momentum when you are in a tournament. We played some good football but had some luck on our side too. We have fantastic players and we were underdogs in a lot of the games and that always works in our favor. Most of all there was no pressure. Shehata can't deal with pressure or instill the confidence required for such crucial matches. Shehata should resign or get sacked.
He will stay till Angola in 2010 I'm sure and I'm glad, as afterwards he will be sacked and we can get a coach to lead us to glory. No Egyptian coach will take us to the world cup in the foreseeable future. We have some bright lights like Tarek El Ashry but it is too early for him. The Egypt job should be given to one man and one man only. Manuel Jose. He has enough experience and rapport with all football fans in the country. He would be untouchable and if left to work in peace we will be there in 2014.
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