World Cup 2002 - African qualification

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World Cup 2002 - African qualification - match report
Namibia - Egypt  Alexandria Jul 13, 2030 = 1730 GMT
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
 

 

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