Indeed, Hossam Hassan’s personality has changed for the better, of course. We benefited from his high fighting spirit that he instilled in the players, especially the young men whom he pushed since he took charge of the national team last February.
Mahmoud Saber, who replaced the injured Dunga hours before the match with Mauritania “the day before yesterday”, was surprised by everyone participating from the beginning of the match, and he thanked the technical director for giving him the opportunity and giving him confidence, stressing that he would be worthy of it, as well as Ahmed Eid, who replaced Mohamed Hani in the match. The right defensive side, and he played distinctive offensive roles in the first half despite not benefiting from his crosses.. One of the aspects of the change in the Brigadier General’s personality is his policy of embracing big stars..
Mohamed Salah, Trezeguet, Zizo and Marmoush, and praised them in the press conference for their help on and off the field by guiding their colleagues and spreading the spirit of the nation in everyone.. Salah’s condition after leaving the field was an expression of his satisfaction in dealing with the national coach after his replacement..
Despite all this, we were not convinced enough of the team’s performance in the first half, which ended negatively despite the abundance of missed opportunities by many, including international star Salah.
Opinions differed about the lineup that Hossam started with, and Mustafa Mohamed was sitting on the bench, the only outright striker, and he had no competent alternative. Hossam even included Osama Faisal in the Botswana match due to Mustafa’s injury.
Marmoush is not a striker, but he is a left winger and he returned to his position after Mustafa came on, so the balance of the formation was adjusted with Trezeguet entering the midfield.
However, the two goals came from the individual skills of Trezeguet and Salah, although the second goal was from a wonderful cross pass from Marwan Attia to Hamdy Fathi.
The technical director did not hide his concern about the return match – the day after tomorrow, “Tuesday”, in Nouakchott, the capital, in a disturbing stadium, as it is covered with artificial turf and the narrow space between the fans and the stadium floor, and the pressure this represents on the away team, in addition to the almost rough performance that we witnessed from the visitors in the match. Cairo Stadium…and what may cause injuries to our players…
Hence, some spoke about the request of some stars not to travel to Nouakchott for fear of being injured… especially the Al-Ahly and Zamalek players who are preparing to meet the Egyptian Super Cup in the Emirates starting October 20.
Salah said that he will try to find a solution to this problem in the coming hours, hoping that they will be with the mission and that they will be pushed when necessary, because Egypt leads the group with the full mark of “nine points,” which may greatly facilitate the task of qualifying for the African finals, provided that it is a draw. There is a minimum acceptable level of them.
Considering that reaching point 12 is enough to qualify, we still have two matches, one of which is in Egypt with Botswana, and victory is almost guaranteed, even if the latter achieved a surprise victory over Cape Verde, one of the teams nominated for promotion.
It remains for everyone to remain united with one man behind the national team until it qualifies for the African Nations and the World Cup, so that we can achieve the dream again with a national coach in the truest sense of the word.
