Egypt’s 1-0 win against Zimbabwe in the opening game of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations might seem like a poor result given the difference in quality between the two sides. However, I believe the scoreline was not an accurate representation of the match.
Good pressing from Marwan Mohsen from the first minute caused Zimbabwe to give away many turnovers. While he obviously isn’t the fastest and doesn’t have the build of a prototypical pressing forward, his pressing is and will be effective against poor defenses (in terms of passing and dribbling) like Zimbabwe.
From the first minute, Egypt were playing visually-appealing, attacking football. A passing pattern with Trezeguet, Ashraf and the center midfielders allowed Trezeguet to play a cross field ball to Salah, whose cross caused a corner. Another Salah cross seconds later caused another corner after the Zimbabwe goalkeeper pushed Marwan Mohsen’s header over the bar.
Seeing all of this within the first two minutes of the game gave me a positive view of our National Team, a feeling that we were in good hands under Javier Aguirre. I immediately thought back to the horror show that we put on a year ago in Russia. Given that we were playing the almost exact lineup that we put out in Russia, it was refreshing to see these same players passing and moving like a great, put-together football team.
Egypt’s first real chance came in the 8th minute. Mohamed Salah picked the ball up in the midfield and skipped through multiple defenders before playing a great ball to Abdallah El-Said who then played a 1-2 with Marwan Mohsen. El-Said probably should have done better but he blasted it at the keeper before Trezeguet skied the rebound into Row Z. It would have been an excellent team goal had El-Said converted.
Missed opportunity from El-Said after a great team move
Minutes later Salah found himself with the ball and some space on the right baseline and drove towards goal before playing a square ball into the box. Unfortunately El-Said made a mess of the shot and skied it over the bar, but Egypt were playing attacking football, which was enough for a fan like me who had memories of our disaster-show in Russia fresh in my mind.
Missed chance from El-Said
Salah almost scored on one of his trademark runs toward goal from the right wing on 16 minutes, however, Salah’s shooting boots were not on and Egypt blasted yet another shot over the bar. A few minutes later it was Salah again with a great ground cross into the box, but the flat-footed Mohsen was in a poor position and could not get to the end of it.
Within the first 25 minutes, Egypt were creating attacking chances like crazy but could not find the net. Trezeguet finally broke the deadlock on 41 minutes after great individual play from the Kasimpasa winger. After dribbling past defenders on the sideline, he played a 1-2 with Ayman Ashraf and made a beautiful turn to open his body and sell the defender before an even better finish to finesse it to the right side netting to make it 1-0.
Egypt played good attacking football and were also building up play well. Add this to a solid defensive performance and almost nobody could be blamed. Obviously Zimbabwe is a weak opponent, but to see positive, free-flowing football from an Egypt team was an incredible stride from last year’s World Cup.
What was key to our improvement in 12 months was the individual improvement of Mahmoud Trezeguet. Not only did he score the goal, but he was arguably our most explosive player before he was substituted off.
A disappointing performance from Salah?
Salah was the focal point of the Egyptian attack, and for a good portion of the match, every possession we had involved him. Egypt and Liverpool are two completely different teams, so Salah has different roles in each. Liverpool has the luxury of only relying on Salah’s finishing prowess, while for Egypt he is required to play a more reserved creative role. One of Aguirre’s biggest tasks is how to get the most out of Salah, and it appears that the Mexican still has some work to do on this front. It is important to keep in mind though that Salah probably should have scored twice. First, in the 66th minute an excellent througball from Trezeguet found Salah with a 1 on 1 but he could not finish. 20 minutes later he was in a similar position but could not finish an admittedly tougher chance.
Zimbabwe pushed forward in the final 10 minutes off of counter-attacks but were not able to convert. Defensively, Egypt was solid. Although they were rarely tested, El-Shenaway had a quiet night which he can thank the defense and center midfielders for.
Elneny and Hamed
Watching the game you would think it was Hamed, not Elneny,that played for Arsenal. Hamed was excellent on the night, a defensive rock in our midfield and the more positive going forward out of the two center midfielders. Elneny had some good moments going forward, but it was more of the same from the Arsenal benchwarmer who will be remembered for his misplaced passes instead of his tackles last night.
What did you think of the match?
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