Egypt returned to the pitch for the first time since their disheartening 1-0 loss to South Africa in July to take on Botswana in front of an almost empty Cairo International Stadium. Even though the match left a lot to be desired, this will not be a scathing review of Hossam El Badry’s first match as Egypt manager.
Botswana, ranked 148th in the world, are a minnow of African football by all means. The Zebras have only qualified for one AFCON (2012) and finished with one point in their qualification group for the recent Africa Cup. So when looking at the 1-0 result, it’s incredibly disappointing that the Pharaohs were not able to run up the scoresheet.
When comparing the result to previous manager Javier Aguirre’s first matches (6-0 and 4-1 wins against Niger and eSwatini, respectively), it begs one to ask: is El-Badry even worse than Aguirre?
My answer is no. Or at least that it’s way too early to tell.
In defense of El Badry, the style of play was not terrible. And had the team converted their chances, the score would have been a lot higher. In his own words: “The camp wasn’t too long due to the difficulties of the past period and the delay in announcing the new Egypt coaching staff. I still can’t decide on omitted players in the meantime.”
Not that it would have mattered too much, the team was without Ramadan Sobhi and Mostafa Mohamed, who were with the Olympic national team. The more notable absence was that of Mohamed Salah. I wonder how much Salah would have been able to impact this game. It is clear that had he been in the game, El Badry’s play style would have been completely different. Salah would’ve gotten the ball much more than Hussein El-Shahat got it last night, and it is likely that most of the play would have been directed through him.
I guess there is a positive in seeing how El Badry manages a Salah-less Egypt team, and that he was not clueless without his star player, unlike previous managers.
Now to dig into the game itself. View the slide show to see talking points from Egypt’s 1-0 win over Botswana.
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