Au Revoir Cote D'Ivoire...Welcome Cup!
Football can't possibly offer more excitement, or suspense than this. A 120 minutes match, a 1-minute-before-time-ruled-out goal, a lost penalty kick in extra time, 3 near-impossible-to-miss Ivorian chances, and it all came down to the dreaded penalty kicks.
Millions, upon millions of Egyptians were literally shaking through out the penalty shoot-out. If it weren't for the heroics of goalkeeper Essam El-Hadry, the cup would have ended in a Greek tragedy sort of way, but God had mercy with the millions!
Let's just dive right into the action:
The stadium is packed at 2 pm (4 hours before kick off)
..some fans even brought their own cups...just in case
Lots of signs and flags:
Lebanon
..no comment..
"Pharohs have landed" (talk about validating a myth!)
"Au Revoir Cote d'Ivoire" -- this is how the fans cheered out the Ivorians at the end of the game...this is how sophisticated the Egyptian fans became...they're cheering in French!!!
"Game Over Cote D'Ivoire"
Wow...marching bands!!! This guys are awesome
They played Opera Aida by Verdi...the fans really reacted well...(between this and the cheering in French, I don't know where are we going with these fans...what's next...cappuchino in the stands??...wait a minute there was actually cappuchino stalls!!)
Minutes before the game Mubarak arrives to the stadium (...to be kissed towards the end by his wife!)
6:00 PM the game kicks off...
8:40 PM penalty shootout (for what happened in between refer to the beginning of the post)
Derogba getting ready...to miss!!
Abo Treka shooting to win the 25th Africa Cup of Nations (you can see how I was shaking!)
The fans went wild....
...and the players, and the staff, and the press
the cup is here somewhere..
10:00 PM...getting ready to dance the night away..
ah...one more sign....
Amen!
P.S. For more coverage check sandmonkey's and big pharoh's excellent coverage of after match reactions!
Tam Tram Tam Tam Masr...Tam Tram Tam Tam Masr
Tags:
posted by TB at
1:59 PM
5 Comments:
TB,
Thanks a million for posting the photos, I can't get enough of pictures of the flags, the fans, the excitement and the streets. Looking forward to your interview, I'll try my best to tune in.
Congrats to you and all of Egypt, this is such a historic moment, would've loved to be there.
By
Anonymous, at
February 12, 2006 4:29 PM
I know how do you feel...I was abroad in 1998...and everybody said that i missed out...part of the reason that I wanted to cover this thing on the blog is for ppl like you to feel how is it like to be in the middle of the action....as if you were in the stadium...you can get other coverage from tv..
By
TB, at
February 12, 2006 6:16 PM
Man, you were in an excellent position, just to see the goals :)
I have more videos of dancing in the streets (alas I forgot to bring my canon with me :( )
By
Anonymous, at
February 13, 2006 10:01 AM
TB:
Well thank you, I'm sure I'm not the only one who benefited from your post. I keep coming back to look at the pictures, three days later :)
By
Anonymous, at
February 14, 2006 12:56 AM
Thanks for leaving your URL on my blog. I enjoyed the photos of Egypt winning very much.
My mom is Greek, and I also enjoyed watching Greece win the European Championships. So I am at the top of the world with Egypt and Greece the champs of their respective continents....what are the chances of this happening?
Now all that's left is for Germany to win the world cup (my wife is german) and it will be the impossible hatrick.
Great bolg. Cheers.
By
Anonymous, at
March 13, 2006 7:20 PM
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