For Egyptian fans, football fuelled the real drama of 2009 with the highs and lows of the national team, U-20 team’s disappointment in the World Cup and the intense race for the local title between Al-Ahly and Ismaili.
Playing 16 matches, scoring 29 goals and conceding 18, the Egyptian national team also played with the feelings of 80 million Egyptians with its inconsistent performances and unpredictable results.
Having known their draw for the final World Cup 2010 qualifying group stage, Egyptian fans and players thought that the World Cup’s ticket is guaranteed in front of opponents like Zambia, Algeria and Rwanda; they started the year with two friendlies against Kenya (won 1-0) and Ghana (drawn 2-2).
Locally, the year started with Haras El Hodoud being crowned as champions of Egypt Cup for the first time in their history after beating ENPPI 4-1 on penalty kicks following a 1-1 draw after extra time.
In March, the 70,000 fans that packed Cairo Stadium expected an easy win in the first world cup qualifier against Zambia. Although, the Egyptian team started scoring through Amr Zaki, they were stunned by an equalizer from the guests. Despite attempts to change the score, the game ended in a draw and doubts were cast over Egypt’s qualification chances.
With a goalless draw between other group members Algeria and Rwanda, Egypt kept their hopes alive ahead of the first Algeria game in Blida in June.
Until that date, Egyptian fans were kept busy with a heated competition between rivals Al-Ahly and Ismaily in the Egyptian Premier League; Ismaili coming back from behind to beat Al-Ahly in Cairo, followed by disappointing results by the title contenders; the gap was closed to two points only two weeks before the end.
Both teams had to play a tiebreaker in Alexandria which Al-Ahly won with a 1-0 score and crowned themselves champions for the fifth consecutive time and 34th in its history; however, this was the most earned title of the last five; especially with the fierce last minute competition.
In 241 matches, 584 goals were scored with a rate of 2.4 goal per game; both Al-Ahly and Ismaili earned the strongest attack title scoring 52 goals each, Haras El Hodoud finished as best defense conceding 22 goals only.
Eyes turned to the national team again, as they headed to Oman to hold their highly criticized preparation camp for Algeria beating their national team 1-0 before heading to Algeria to face its national team.
Despite putting a good performance in the first half, the Egyptian team collapsed in the second half conceding three goals and scoring one through Mohamed Abou-Trika; the result meant that Egypt will have to win all remaining matches with the highest possible score and hope Algeria stumbled in any of its matches.
With these sentiments of disappointment and frustration, Egypt participated in the Confederations Cup held in South Africa as African champions.
In the group stage, after a disastrous first half that ended 3-1 for Brazil, Egypt jumped into the game in the second half, scoring two goals in less than two minutes before conceding a last minute penalty in which the referee used video replay for the first time in football history and in contrast with FIFA rules, to show a red card for Ahmed El Mohammadi for his handball, although he initially whistled for a corner kick.
In the second game against Italy, Egypt beat world champions Italy with Mohammed Homos’ header in the first half to send Egyptians into joy and celebrations before their dreams were dashed with a disappointing 3-0 defeat against USA. They only needed to score one goal to qualify to the second round.
The game was followed by a great hype over rumors spread by a South African tabloid Sunday World that Egyptian players brought prostitutes to celebrate their victory over Italy. The rumors were propagated by TV host Amr Adeeb, but were later proven false by South African police and the apology of the South African newspaper.
The Egyptian team returned to Cairo to resume their World Cup Qualification campaign by beating Rwanda 3-0 with all three goals scored during the last 30 minutes of the game.
One month later, Egypt traveled to Kigali to meet the same team in a must win match during Ramadan and extreme hot weather; Ahmed Hassan succeeded in scoring Egypt’s only goal.
As Algeria’s lead became more and more threatened, Egypt increased the pressure by beating Zambia in Chililabombwe 1-0 through Hosni Abd Raboh’s goal. At the same time, Algeria failed to win with a comfortable score difference when they hosted Rwanda, winning 3-1 at home.
Meanwhile, Egypt hosted successfully the U-20 World Cup with the participation of 24 teams playing in brand new and renovated stadiums. The Egyptian team failed to meet expectations after a good start against Trinidad & Tobago with a 4-1 victory in newly opened Egyptian Army stadium in Burg El Arab.
However, they lost 2-1 to Paraguay in Cairo Stadium at the last minute before beating Italy 4-2 to qualify to the round of 16 on the top of their group. Costa Rica dashed Egyptian hopes of progressing in the tournament after beating the hosts 2-0. Ghana emerged as eventual champions as the first African team to hold the title of this tournament.
Fans refocused their attention on the senior team. On Nov. 14, Egypt and Algeria went for a showdown in Cairo Stadium. Media in both countries charged fans for the game and against each other.
The Algerian team’s bus was pelted with stones upon arrival in Cairo, leaving two injured players.
Egypt won 2-0 through Zaki’s second minute goal and Emad Meteb’s last minute header to force a tiebreaker between the two teams in Sudan. Following the game, Algerian media falsely claimed that traveling Algerian fans were attacked in Cairo and some of them died.
The news reports, which were refuted by Algerian and Egyptian officials, fueled the anger of Algerian fans who attacked Egyptian nationals and companies in Algeria.
In a charged atmosphere and high hopes from both sides, the game in Sudan took place and ended up with an Algerian 1-0 victory after the Egyptian team inefficiently dominated the game.
The game, however, was followed by tragic events as Algerian fans attacked Egyptians heading to the airport leaving 21 of them injured to spur mass demonstrations in front of the Algerian embassy in Cairo.
Egyptian fans look forward to the African Cup, due to kick off in January in Angola, as they hope their team will hold the title for the third consecutive time.
