Olympics 2012: Egypt 3-1 Belarus

[akamoke]

Im glad they beat this Belarus team because I saw something in Football Mundial recently where the coach was ranting that Brazil was the only team to reckon with in that group and that the rest of the teams are on the same level and that they can beat Egypt and NZ blah blah ..

[segebaba]

Nice one Egypt...looks like the Pharaoahs are back...with these young guys all they need is confidence....its a shame the European teams didnt release the bulk of our u-23 team (Igiebor, oduomadi, haruna etc) we missed our chance to build the future SE ......at least senegal and egypt have made up for the disgraceful cameroon and SA women ...maybe CAF should decree only Ghana and Naija should represent in women's football for the next few years...lol

they haven't done jack shyte to deserve such a decree. other countries also deserve a chance to be the "whipping boys" at womens tournaments.

But we know Naija and ghana wont open yansh for the likes of canada and new zeland now....i can understand us opening yansh for germany,usa and sweden... the last w/cup germany and france only narrowly bear naija...and we beat canada...ghana also gave a good account of themselves but cameroon played like they had an inferiority complex...it was shameful to watch jare....

[akamoke]

Nice one Egypt...looks like the Pharaoahs are back...with these young guys all they need is confidence....its a shame the European teams didnt release the bulk of our u-23 team (Igiebor, oduomadi, haruna etc) we missed our chance to build the future SE ......at least senegal and egypt have made up for the disgraceful cameroon and SA women ...maybe CAF should decree only Ghana and Naija should represent in women's football for the next few years...lol

they haven't done jack shyte to deserve such a decree. other countries also deserve a chance to be the "whipping boys" at womens tournaments.

But we know Naija and ghana wont open yansh for the likes of canada and new zeland now....i can understand us opening yansh for germany,usa and sweden... the last w/cup germany and france only narrowly bear naija...and we beat canada...ghana also gave a good account of themselves but cameroon played like they had an inferiority complex...it was shameful to watch jare....

Once upon a time, say 12 yrs ago, Nigeria was opening yansh for USA 7-1 losing badly to Germany, North Korea, Sweden and China

Let other teams open yansh too, maybe one day, they too will be celebrating moral victories like Nigeria is right now when they hold Germany and France to one goal deficits...

Leave these teams alone, didnt some of them beat Nigeria and Ghana along the way?

[Tunisian Gooner]

Mabrook Masr and good luck to the Senegalese.

[akamoke]

Stupid African ref gives Sandro a 2nd YC and Brazil is 1 man down!

I thought it was a penalty too but....Ermm what has referee's Africanness got to do with it..

[phantomjournalist]

Well, I am glad the Pharaohs won. Now we just hope that the team continues to play hard in the second round

Na, I'm sure they won't play hard. Why should they?

[phantomjournalist]

Why do Nigerians love living vicariously through other countries so much? We love saying what other countries should and shouldn't do yet we aren't even in the Olympics.

[Robbynice]

Well, I am glad the Pharaohs won. Now we just hope that the team continues to play hard in the second round

Na, I'm sure they won't play hard. Why should they?

[juventuss]

Congrats Egypt.

[Man Ataye]

CONGRATS EGYPT..U AND SENEGAL ARE THRU..NOW AWAITING MAROC AND GABON..

[KB]

Congrats Egypt!

[analyzer]

[Oba]

Japan vs Egypt, and Mexico vs Senegal. I'd fancy Africa's chances. The winner of these games then face off in the Semi finals.

[Chief Ogbunigwe]

Hopefully Ramzy can figure out a way to get us going in the 1st half on Saturday.

We've scored 0 goals and conceded 4 in the first halves of our 3 group stage matches. We've scored 6 goals and conceded 0 in the second halves of our matches.

Egypt played first half like Arsenal, second half like Barca...except that they became Arsenal again at the end.

Around the time they conceded the goal, I dunno why they opted for the bone-headed move of playing with 10 men when their right winger went down with injury. He should have gotten medical attention inside the pitch while holding the game up for as long as they could, rather than immediately take himself outside for treatment.

[Heliopolis]

Hopefully Ramzy can figure out a way to get us going in the 1st half on Saturday.

We've scored 0 goals and conceded 4 in the first halves of our 3 group stage matches. We've scored 6 goals and conceded 0 in the second halves of our matches.

Egypt played first half like Arsenal, second half like Barca...except that they became Arsenal again at the end.
Around the time they conceded the goal, I dunno why they opted for the bone-headed move of playing with 10 men when their right winger went down with injury. He should have gotten medical attention inside the pitch while holding the game up for as long as they could, rather than immediately take himself outside for treatment.

We have played very entertaining football since the 2nd half vs. Brazil. We completely demolished NZ but our resident footballing expert Yujam concluded that we lacked ambition and heart solely based on the fact that he just happened to be browsing this forum around the time the match ended and decided to bless us with his expertise that because Egypt couldnt win the match, that they were heart-less.

Ofcourse if another team, say Spain or Brazil or Barca or Arsenal play entertaining footy but come up short, Yujam will say something along the lines of "They deserved to win", "They were unlucky", "Credit to them for playing good footy".

When Egypt dominates a match but falls short of winning, they are, in the wise words of Yujam, ambitious-less and heart-less. Ofcourse we were lacking in both those qualities when we won 7 ACNs

[Heliopolis]

Japan vs Egypt, and Mexico vs Senegal. I'd fancy Africa's chances. The winner of these games then face off in the Semi finals.

I'd say the African teams are under dogs in both matches. Mexico at the age-grade level is no joke. I think they won the U17 WC last year?

I think both will be close though and I wouldnt be surprised to see both matches go to extra time, or be decided by just 1 goal in normal time.

Japan's main advantages over us is there insane energy levels (these mofos never get tired), and their ability to execute quality set pieces. I'm not sure if our players will be fasting or not but even when 100%, Egyptian players are known to run out of gas early in matches. We'll have to figure out a way to keep the Japanese at bay...perhaps by slowing the game down with long spells of possession. Our set piece defence is terrible, and we've conceded 2 goals in our last 2 matches on set pieces where our defenders inexcusably left opponents unmarked. They teach you how to mark opponents on corner-kicks when you are 6 years old so to be making this mistake at the Olympics is beyond comprehension.

Our best bet to winning the match would just be to play the way we've been playing since the 2nd half vs Brazil. We need to make some personnel adjustments, i.e. replacing our starting CF and beefing up our CM, but we are good going forward. Our biggest challenge will be find a way to keep the ball out of our net. Our defence is poor (we've conceded 5 so far), and our GK is extremely shaky.

It'll be an entertaining match for neutrals.

[ElHadary]

The Japanese may have the energy but they don't have the technical ability to keep up with Egypt.