Before the match:
A thrilling three way race
between North African powers Morocco and Egypt, and West African surprise
team Senegal.
After Morocco has beaten
Egypt, Senegal, too, are back in the race. If they beat Morocco and win
at Namibia, it might become a race for the better goal difference with
Egypt. But for this the North Africans will need to win themselves their
remaining matches and especially tonight will seek goal difference because
at this point Senegal has the better one here.
Namibia are unpredictable,
possibly demotivated and shaken by disciplinary problems which have already
to a coach resignation. Egypt once before defeated Namibia by a huge scoreline,
in the 1998 qualifiers. Both teams of today should be a bit stronger each.
The first leg had seen Namibia
taking the lead at home and Egypt nervously and uncoordinated attacking,
scoring a lucky late equalizer anyway. But Namibia are much weaker away.
1st half:
- Egypt in white socks,
green shorts and shirts, Namibia in all red
-('1) 13 seconds until Egypt
have conquered the ball and a shot first tests the Namibian keeper, 40
seconds until a first dangerous cross unveils weaknesses in the Namibian
defence
-('3) namibian offside trap
fails terribly but the Namibian keeper has been alerted and stops the through
ball by his chest before the Egyptian strikers reach it
-('5) first easy goal
for Egypt: a bad clearing leaves #11 Tarek El Saeed free in front of the
goal, half left position, 11 meter distance, and he fires into the second
corner - 1:0
-('8) Namibian keeper deflects
a harmless shot for a corner
-Namibia look ready to
concede 10 or 20, lose balls early, offer spaces, and seem incapable to
keep with the Egyptian tempo
-('10) Egyoptian cross into
the penalty area and only the Egyptian attackers and the Namibian keeper
seem to try to reach it, the keeper wins this time
-('11) next half chance
for Egypt
-('12) a corner for Namibia
-('13) Ahmed Hossam (Mido)
heads over the bar
-('16) Namibian offside
trap fails again, and it is three Egyptians against the keeper, but they
play it miserably and it is offside a moment later
-('17) Namibian keeper misses
the ball aand an Egyptian striker is through but the angle is too narrow,
so the ball rolls wide
-('18) more turmoil in the
Namibian penalty area as the Namibians most of the times leave at least
one striker alone
-One has to say here,
Namibians have been as bad at Algeria but Egypt are stronger than the Algerians
-('20)('21) more Egyptian
attacks roll towards the Namibian goal
-Egypt have been in a
hurry from the beginning, keen not to waste a second. This might become
a problem later, lacking precision when becoming exhausted
-('26) a deflected
20 meter shot by Barakat hits the goalpost and goes out for a corner
-('29) again the Namibian
keeper has to win a cross with his fist against unchallenged Egyptian attackers
going for the header
-('30) a first good looking
Namibian counter attack is stopped by the Egyptian defence
-('31) a second Namibian
counteer attack gets dangerous: Egypt seem surprisd by the high number
of attackers, the eventual shot goes over the bar
-('37) just as Egypt
started to look a little desperate, a brilliant through ball against the
sometimes odd Namibian offside trap and Barakat scores easily - 2:0
-('39) again Barakat is
sent through but the keeper intercepts
-of course the keeper
is part of a working offside trap, but this one sometimes looks uncoordinated
-(40) another easy goal
for Egypt, #8 Basouny? ,unchallenged, heads a cross from the left (Tarek
El Saeed) into the net- 3:0
-('41) the Namibian defence
falls apart
-('43) this time it is
a low cross from the left which is footed in by Basouny- 4:0
-('44) a hattrick, again
a cross from the left, where #3 Emara is dominating, #17 Ahmed Hassan shoots
from the right, and Basouny deflects it intentionally into the corner -
5:0
-('injury time) alomost
the next goal but the Namibian keeper, who seems to be the only person
on the field seriously interested in denying them, rescues once more
halftime 5:0
2nd half:
-('47) the Namibian defence
not only looks helpless, now they seem to have become even more nervous,
too
-('49) Egypttian attacks
roll one after the other, again it is the keeper who has to intercept an
attack
-('52) Egypt: free kick
across the bar, no threat
-('53) a rare Namibiam
attack, maybe not taken seriously by the Egyptian defence: a player dribbles
into the penalty area and centers a ball, a second puts his foot in and
scores from short range - 5:1
-('55) Egypt answer immediately
and Namibians 'refuse' to defend an indirectly played corner, again Basouny
is all alone at his header but the ball goes wide
-('56) Egyptians tend to
play many corners short and Namibian players seem so fascinated that they
do not want to disturb
-('59) a clumsy bodycheck
against Tarek El Saeed and a penalty for Egypt
-('60) El Saeed shoots
himself and the keeper saves
-('61) Egypt: a cross from
the left (from where else), and Basouny is all alone at the second goal
post with all defenders on the other side of the universe. But he takes
too long and the keeper dives and prevents froom the sure goal
-('62) Namibian keeper saves
a Barakat shot
-('64) should have been
an easy goal for Barakatbut he fires across the bar from close range, unchallenged
of course
-('65) Namibia survive another
clumsy defending episode after Ramzy has initiated a fine Egyptian attack
-('70) Namibia: long
ball into attack: the Egyptian keeper comes out of his penalty area and
misses it, a defender should have it (Ramzy just has been substituted)
but slips and so the Namibian attacker only needs to shove it across the
line - 5:2
-('73) Barakat fires
from 22 meters, the ball takes a bounce and beats the keeper - 6:2
-('74) Egypt: Sabry comes
in for Tarek El Saeed and #9 for #18 Ahmed Hossam
-('78) Egypt run a good
counter attack against the offside trap, it is Sabry who connects with
#9 who scores - 7:2
-('79) Namibians stop defending
but Egypt cannot capitalize this time
-('81) Sabry breaks through
but the keeper is hero again and takes the ball from his foot
-Namibians are conspiciously
inferiour in one against one challenges
-('88) Sabry, sent through,
scores by a low shot from half left which bounces from the second goal
post into the net. There is a bit confusion over the assistant seeming
to signal offside which can't be - 8:2
-('injury time) Sabry through
again this time the ball rolls wide
-('injury time) Namibia
almost play through but their attacks fade
-('injury time) it is already
the sixth minute of the four minute injury time
final score 8:2
The idea of having big groups
with many matches now turns to lead to a bizzar finale at least in Group
B and D.
Namibia were no match for
Egypt and the North Africans could have scored fifteen if they had not
acted much less confident and more hectically in some sequences of the
match, which then gave the anxious Namibians a little backwind. In other
moments, especially when ignited by a score, Egypt quickly turned
the match into a goalspree, euphorically creating tons of chances.
The scoreline remained so
'low' thanks also to the high morale of the Namibian keeper who threw himself
into the action for every ball while his defenders prefered to play the
roles of sightseeing tourists or were paralysed in the thunderstorm, however
you might like it.
The result itself is not
a big surprise: Namibians are not famous for their defence, especially
away from home, and Egypt are capable of steamrolling over opponents -
but only provided that confidence, momentum, and the run of events are
on their side.
So this is no contradiction
to the first leg picture.
Now Egypt have to hope that
Senegal is not any shocked by the scoreline - without Senegal beating Morocco
tomorrow this has been of no use
|
M |
G |
P |
Morocco |
7 |
8-2 |
15 |
Egypt |
7 |
15-6 |
12 |
Senegal |
6 |
8-2 |
9 |
Algeria |
7 |
10-13 |
7 |
Namibia |
7 |
3-21 |
2 |
group winner qualifies for
World Cup 2002
|