Tomanbay: Egypt Prays Its Way To The Final

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Egypt Prays Its Way To The Final

Moved on! Check TheCairoCalls

This is going to be short and sweet.
After a disappointing performance, an overlooked penalty kick for Senegal, and a near-punch raw between Mido and Coach Hassan Shehata, Egypt is through to the semi-final! Can you believe this??!
I love this game!

Anyways, as always I was in the stands armed with a camera, an Egyptian flag, and a worn-out voice.

4:00 PM 3 hours before the game, the stadium is in full tilt! Wow, those Egyptians are real football freaks!

6:45 PM Minutes before the game started; you can cut the tension in the stands with a knife!

More than half way into the first half, Egypt is awarded a penalty kick after a very stupid error from Senegal defender. You can see Ahmed Hassan burying it...

...but you can't see it hitting the net (it did...you have to take my word for it, I guess!)

7:55 PM From this angle Sphinx seems every bit as interested as his fellow Egyptians!

8:00 PM "Hello, my cute American friend. Thanks for the cheering, we'll repay you one day...uh, sorry...I forgot you suck in football--our football"...just kidding, seriously, thanks! Appreciated!

To the surprise of everybody in the stadium, Amr Zaki, Mido's sub, scores the second goal after a magnificent header. Despite my humble opinion about his footballing skills, I'll have to thank him for that. Touche!
(Celebrating afterwards)

Tam, tram, tam, tam Misr..Tam, tram, tam, tam Misr..

The Eagles of Saladin are flying all around me. (Inspired by my favorite football song, Football is coming home, it is more appropriate for eagles than crosses of St. George anyways!)

The fans celebrating afterwards. Or are they rushing to get next game's tickets?

That's all folks!

For next game I plan to do something different: I am planning a blow-by-blow account of the game as it unfolds, i.e. live!! I'm all geared up for blogging-on-the-move. But, I'll only do it if enough people are interested. The way I see it, the gratification I get from pretending to be a real journalist, should at least approach the excessive fees I'll have to pay for GPRS throughout the match.

So tell me what you think...

Moved on!

11 Comments:

the only people I know who are being honest about the senegal penalty thing are bloggers.

no one wants to admit it, in fact people are saying the ref was on their side (I'm yet to see a match when the ref wasn't working against us).

By Anonymous, at February 09, 2006 6:31 AM

i dont think so...everybody I talked to, and everybody on TV seems to think that it is a penalty...
I would have shooted it, but I was too busy thinking about the next 30 minutes...luckily the ref spared us all the trouble

By TB, at February 09, 2006 10:03 AM

Alaa.

Don't be such a bloody child. The Ahram website said it was a clear penalty for Senegal.

By Josef Assad, at February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

I personally think the Senegal player over did it in the fall, but then again what footballer doesn't?

Back to the subject at hand, YES, Tomanbay I'd love nothing more than be able to follow the game from a stadium fan's perspective! So by all means, please do blog throughout the game.

I'm still trying to figure out how I'm getting out of work that day (the game is on at 11 a.m. here in the US), but once I figure that out, I'll be following the game with you.

By Anonymous, at February 09, 2006 4:41 PM

the good thing is that u would be able to follow it from work ;)

By TB, at February 09, 2006 5:05 PM

Haha! Well, first I would be jumping and screaming left and right.

Now imagine someone jumping randomly in the middle of a super quiet office, as they shout in a foreign language things such as "ya ragell, shoooott";"di le3ba tedaya3ha!", among other things.

I can imagine my co-workers faces now :)

By Anonymous, at February 09, 2006 8:33 PM

I thought it was a penalty as well. But you have to give the referee the benefit of the doubt, I couldn't see the first handball if it weren't for the instant replay. Obviously we have a different view than him, but I don't know which one was right.

Nice pictures. I say don't do the computer thing. You will miss the game this way, and besides they might not even let it in. Just have a good time. And please BOO Mido for me! Thanks.

By Seneferu, at February 10, 2006 1:42 AM

I'll do it on my phone...I am using this software on my pocket pc...i know there had been great improvements in the stadium, but I still can't imagine a laptop in there...but u r right about missing the game...but I think I can manage posting every 15 mins or something...will c how it goes

By TB, at February 10, 2006 11:08 AM

Tomanbay I'm working with the BBC. We're covering the game and we'd like to speak to some fans. Can you drop me an email to chris.vallance@bbc.co.uk

By Anonymous, at February 10, 2006 12:06 PM

Shame on You ya TomanBay... Where is your coverage of the final!?
Hope you are all fine...
Waiting!!!!
And btw ya Alaa opf course every single commentator in Egypt said it is a clear penalty and that we are lucky the referee didn't notice it (to give the guy the benefit of doubt)

By m a s r i s t, at February 12, 2006 5:48 AM

here is the final....sorry for the delay!

By TB, at February 12, 2006 9:26 AM