Well it did not look hopeful for a long time but Hussain finally came good with the tickets on the Friday night before the game (in Egypt there are always ways and means) and I got a text from Piet to meet at midday on Saturday for a trip down town to the BIG GAME.
In fact they don’t come any bigger than this, Egypt v Algeria for the last World Cup place for South Africa. Egypt needed to win by 2 clear goals to force a play-off, 3 to go through straight off. Tension had been mounting for weeks with the rival press stoking up old and bitter rivalries. A few years ago a similar match ended with the chief medic of the Egyptian team loosing an eye in the post-match melee so revenge was openly talked about. Nationalist songs were played on the radio and flag sellers waved from every corner. You could feel in the air, this was a BIG GAME.
Tension was also not helped by the Algerian team bus being stoned on arrival! The scene was set.
Anyway myself and Piet set off to meet the rest of the guys at the office at just after midday. Now in Egypt when you plan to meet at around 12.30 it means just that, but come 12.30 the Egyptians were calling us, where are you? We need to get to the stadium. You need to bear in mind kick off was 7
.30pm!
We met around 12.45 and took 2 taxis, snaking our way through choked back streets to the game. Myself, Piet and Hussain had to abandoned the taxi with about a mile to walk, crowds in red and white thronged the streets and spill onto the streets, a cacophony of car horns already blaring. We made our way round the stadium to our entrance to be greeted by 1000 batoned and shielded riot police and a 500m long queue 8-10 wide going towards our gate. I love the Egyptians but orderly queuing is not their
strong point. What is a strength though is their ability to think on their feet and blag their way in any situation. As Hussain was to show he is Da Man in such situations. He approaches the line of riot police, who tense up, undeterred he shouts over to the Captain that he has 2 people from the British Embassy who are VIPs to see the game (the fact we were 2 disheveled and unshaven chaps in Jeans and tee-shirts did not seem to matter or that one of us was Dutch). Blagging in Egypt works well because as a people they really do want to help, even in a massive 100 000 people crowd in a tense 
environment the senior police officer want to help out. So police captain arranges for us to queue in a much shorter line with the Algerians. So there we are amongst the green and white of “the enemy” with our Egyptian head scarfs on! Starting to think that Hussains approach might not be so great after all. However they were a good bunch the Algerians and we had a good laugh whilst we went through stringent security checks. I counted my pockets were checked 7 times in about 100m – much better than Cairo airport.
Once in the first gates with Hussain in full blagging mode we managed thankfully to make our way across the street to the Egyptian side and join the hordes. One more VIP-induced front of the queue, push in exercise and we were in with 5.45hrs to kick off.
In fact they don’t come any bigger than this, Egypt v Algeria for the last World Cup place for South Africa. Egypt needed to win by 2 clear goals to force a play-off, 3 to go through straight off. Tension had been mounting for weeks with the rival press stoking up old and bitter rivalries. A few years ago a similar match ended with the chief medic of the Egyptian team loosing an eye in the post-match melee so revenge was openly talked about. Nationalist songs were played on the radio and flag sellers waved from every corner. You could feel in the air, this was a BIG GAME.
Tension was also not helped by the Algerian team bus being stoned on arrival! The scene was set.
Anyway myself and Piet set off to meet the rest of the guys at the office at just after midday. Now in Egypt when you plan to meet at around 12.30 it means just that, but come 12.30 the Egyptians were calling us, where are you? We need to get to the stadium. You need to bear in mind kick off was 7
.30pm!We met around 12.45 and took 2 taxis, snaking our way through choked back streets to the game. Myself, Piet and Hussain had to abandoned the taxi with about a mile to walk, crowds in red and white thronged the streets and spill onto the streets, a cacophony of car horns already blaring. We made our way round the stadium to our entrance to be greeted by 1000 batoned and shielded riot police and a 500m long queue 8-10 wide going towards our gate. I love the Egyptians but orderly queuing is not their
strong point. What is a strength though is their ability to think on their feet and blag their way in any situation. As Hussain was to show he is Da Man in such situations. He approaches the line of riot police, who tense up, undeterred he shouts over to the Captain that he has 2 people from the British Embassy who are VIPs to see the game (the fact we were 2 disheveled and unshaven chaps in Jeans and tee-shirts did not seem to matter or that one of us was Dutch). Blagging in Egypt works well because as a people they really do want to help, even in a massive 100 000 people crowd in a tense 
environment the senior police officer want to help out. So police captain arranges for us to queue in a much shorter line with the Algerians. So there we are amongst the green and white of “the enemy” with our Egyptian head scarfs on! Starting to think that Hussains approach might not be so great after all. However they were a good bunch the Algerians and we had a good laugh whilst we went through stringent security checks. I counted my pockets were checked 7 times in about 100m – much better than Cairo airport.Once in the first gates with Hussain in full blagging mode we managed thankfully to make our way across the street to the Egyptian side and join the hordes. One more VIP-induced front of the queue, push in exercise and we were in with 5.45hrs to kick off.
On entering the stadium you could see why we had to get there early. It was 90% full and in full crazed voice, popular singers were winding up the crowd in a frenzy, it was a truly amazing atmosphere and we still had almost 6 hours to kickoff.
The other taxi full did not have any embassy-looking expats with them so had to queue with everyone else. In true Egyptian style they got to the front only to be told the stadium had reached capacity ~75 000 and the gates were closed. Again blag mode engaged. Showed the guy on the gate their valid tickets and he said “Ok come in then”, so they were some of the last in, making it 4.30 before kick off. No one knows how many got in, but there was plenty of dual and triple occupancy seats and no spare space on the gangways. 
There were a couple of lulls in the singing, some for the call to prayer but for the most part it was 100% full on all the time. Giant flags were passed over and assorted abuse shouted at the growing number of Algerians. Darkness eventually fell, refs checked the field and eventually the crowd rapturously welcomed the Egyptian teams practice on the pitch whilst “not welcoming” the Algerians (“The crowd they say bad words”, said Hussain). We sang “Wahid, Itnayn, Thalleta, Arbaa, Khamsa” 1,2,3,4,5 for some reason – but at least I knew the words, and lots of songs with Misr (Egypt) in them.
Eventually the teams arrived, almost 6hrs after we did, into a glorious dark night, million
s of flags, the bright green of the pitch set against the colourful crowd. People going crazy all around, a Welcome to Hell large flag was unfurled. The anthems were sung, I sang (mouthed) the Egyptian one, a non descript little number. I have no clue what the Algerian anthem sounds like as it was drown out by a hail of noise, abuse and whilst Wembley can only dream about.And they were off, we standing on the seats to see but a great view. “What this game needs is an early goal” and on Egypts first attack Abu Tricka (my name sake) hits the post, the rebound comes back to Mohammed Zidane who shoots, its going in, saved, but bobbles out to Amr Zaki who slides it in. 1-0 Egypt
Pandemonium,
What a great word and it was, people hugging, punching the air falling off chairs……here we go, game on…..
Then the rattled Algerians gained composure and start to push, the Egyptian defense holding out - just. 1-0 half time.
We had been warned the Algerians are masters at time wasting and as the second half went on player after player went down, it looked little the Somme out there, only with bad acting and rolling around. Four were taken off by golf carts in an attempt to waste precious minutes. Egypt took off defenders and put on forwards in an attempt to get the crucial goal, suddenly the static game swayed Egypts way and the attacks start to rain in on th
e Algeria goal but the crossing is poor. 6 minus of extra time and half chances come and go. The ball is passed to the left just in front of us, here we go I think and get camera ready, cross goes in, first good one of the night, little forward leaps, good contact and ball arcs goal-ward, nestling on the corner of the net for one brief silent 
moment before chaos ensures. I missed my photo opportunity as people were jumping all over the place, by the time I got back up on my seat I could see the Algerians distraught lying on their backs, the Egyptians wheeling away in Celebration, the local press photographers praying on the field (should they be getting the important photos?). Wow, you’ve gotta love football. Game restarts another half chance, almost mayhem x1000 but not, then peep peep peep, a huge scrimmage of players, photographers, the
two team posses all make off the field in one amoeba-like blob with flags and fireworks and songs and abuse at forlorn Algerians ringing I their ears.Nobody leaves. We stood for a further 15 mins singing and then make our way back. The streets were chocked with parties and people celebrating. Cars honked. Impromptu dance and drum parties just happened where they happened. We walk the 5 miles back to the office along Saleh Salem, a normally relatively fast arterial road, but nothing was moving, just happy flag waving people content to sit in a joyous traffic jam. Fireworks were fired and aerosols turned into flame throwers into the night sky. People jumped from the roof of one bus to another or had a party in the underpass tunnel. A Really great spontaneous event. Welcome to Egypt!
We got back to the office and try to calculate how to get back home, without going to a major junction as each one had a party at the underpass. We manage to go it apart from a 200m long section which took us 45m to maneuver and we were away leaving the party in full swing, which died down around 4am.
Postscript.
Egypt unfortunately and undeservedly lost the play-off in Sudan (the Algerians needing another 4 golf carts!!). What a great pity, the world Cup would have been fantastic here.
Egypt unfortunately and undeservedly lost the play-off in Sudan (the Algerians needing another 4 golf carts!!). What a great pity, the world Cup would have been fantastic here.
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