Egypt 2-0 Algeria: Emad Moteab’s 95th Minute Goal Forces a World Cup Playoff

Tamim, excuse me, Daryl, I only watched the last 15 minutes of the game because of the Burkina Faso/Malawi game. All I can say is that sometimes there is nothing one can do about fate/destiny. I can feel Algeria’s pain.

Anyway, all is not lost. Both teams have already qualified for the ACN
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/africa-cup-of-nations-angola-2010.html

Algeria now knows Costa Rica’s pain. Both denied qualification but not eliminated. Neither will ever know Saudi Arabia’s pain.

Posted from  United States

this is why sports is so freakin great…no matter what language, culture or country…i could of celebrated that goal along with the egyptians

^ thats right…a beautiful day for soccer and its fans all over the world today. watching any one of the matches played today would convert the most redneck of Americans in the south

in my way to the stadium i was lauging with my friends cause i dont give shit if egypt win or lost but when the match started i became to a big egyptian holigan and i was leading them for cheering for egypt . i was fuckin stressed before the seconed goooooool and after they score it i couldn’t believe it !! and i turn sooo fuckin happy evrybody around me was crying and i felt like iwanna go home and have sex
thats one of the best matches ever

gooo egypt gooooooooo

b00kjunkie. Egypt’s second goal was offside.

youre right. was actually researching that. i dont know how on earth the referee didnt call it.

i think he was too scared in front of a packed cairo stadium.

maybe he prevented war between both countries.

but what a shame really. i watched it on TV and even the arab commentator was too timid to discuss the possibility of the offside.

go check the goal on youtube. egyptians are delusional.

Posted from  Lebanon

i am just happy for Nigeria. it is good we qualified. the head shall be the head and never the tail. it means now to me that south africa 2010 will be enjoyable compare to Germany 2006. Go Nigeria, go 4 gold.

Posted from  Ukraine

egypt will win and finish this priblem in wednesday egypt begans the qualifications with one point after 2matches and algeria was 6 points at the same time ,so i think that the egyption players are the best …and is the problems with the algerians they had take thier chances but they could not use.

I was going to support Egypt, but after the way their fans treated the Algerian players, I hope they lose out. scum.

jamesey… I’m afraid I’m with you on that. It wasn’t just the way the players are treated, it’s how Egyptian security and the Egyptian media tried to cover it up… and how many fans still deny it.

Algeria was hard done by, having to play with three players stitched up in the head, and losing on a last minute *offside* goal, which the linesman didn’t dare call in Cairo Stadium. Algeria has become the team for those hoping for a little justice in this whole mess.

Now may the best team win.

who do you think will win the play-off? you can vote now on http://www.africaplays.com

Three things you have to keep in mind:
1. FIFA banned Maradonna for few months for a comment made after Argentina’s game: wow! He deserves that because FIFA will NEVER accept such behaviour.
2. FIFA “nicely asked” Egypt to ensure Algerian’s played safety – which they did not do even after the end of the game – after the coward attack on their bus when they landed and several players injured…… wow! FIFA seem to accept THAT behaviour.
3. Mr Blatter openely said it would be a shame not to have Egypt in the World Cup……. Isn’t he supposed to be neutral ?

All that to say Egypt will go any length to get their team qualified – and FIFA is part of their plan – but on Wednesday, it will be a different story: they will have to get qualified on their skills and that is highly doubtfull.

Good luck to Algeria.

Posted from  United States

I urge people not to take sides in the Egypt/ Algeria thing just because of what happened. You cannot comprehend the political and social conditions in these countries. As well as the long history of guiltiness on both sides. I urge people to stick to the football because you cannot even begin to comprehend the complexity of these types of situations unless you are from there or have a PhD of some sort… Stick to football. That is all

Posted from  United States

Don’t need a Ph.D. to know what is shameful behavior. What happened years ago is not relevant.

You are right its absolutely shameful. And by judging an entire country by the actions of a few its just as shameful. And by rooting for Algeria you are support people who did very similar thing not so long ago (even last night if you want to mention the burning of Egyptian businesses in Algeria).

But the point is not to think about these things and only to judge these guys on football. Football only. No politics. Do what you want but that is my suggestion

Posted from  United States

Let’s get this very straight: I’m not rooting against Egypt. I am supporting Algeria because of what they’ve been through is seriously shameful, and if FIFA had any sense (i.e. if they treated Algeria like they would have treated, say, England had this happened to them), they would have not been put in the situation they are in. Their ability to play football on a fair level with Egypt was compromised. So if there is any sense of fairness to this whole mess, Algeria would have either already gone through or had the game delayed.

It’s out of sympathy for Algeria not contempt for Egypt.

Ok let me be more specific: I know other people have gone farther, but I am talking about a team of Algerian players, the fans who injured them, and the irresponsible organization who failed to take action. Forget everything else: see that these 30 or so men (the Algerian team + staff) got a raw deal. I for one would like to see that corrected, but as I said, in the end the better team will win.

You are still ignoring the FACT that similar things have happened when Egypt has played in Algeria. It is a FACT that the game that was supposed to send Egypt to the World Cup in 2002 had to be stopped on multiple occasions, for over 45 minutes, because fans were throwing rocks at the team on the pitch. Egypt gave up their 2-0 lead and the draw kept them from qualifying.

But I am not complaining. These things are disgusting and unfortunate but they are the result of political and economic structures that promote them. Basing your support based on one said incident is unfair.

In the end I do not care who you root for but I suggest that football be the only factor- because there is way too much to account for otherwise.

Posted from  United States

Ok, looking things up, Egypt lost a 1 goal lead in Egypt to Algeria in 2001. Not two. And it still wouldn’t have sent Egypt to the World Cup.. why did you lie?

Look, in the end, it REALLY doesn’t make a difference who I root for (honestly, I was surprised you cared so much to begin with). But I am not talking about years ago. Two wrongs don’t make a right, I am sorry that you don’t believe that.

It is really very simple: three Algerian players got injured the day before a match because Egyptian security forces failed to protect them. If anything, FIFA should have had the sense to postpone the match. Algerians played injured (look at the head bands in the game), so the game was unfair from the beginning. You couldn’t judge it on football… in fact, from what we can see, Algeria was better than Egypt in Algeria and were bested by Egypt in Cairo because they were playing injured and were scored on on a botched offside call. I feel sorry for what the Algerian team has been put through, so I hope they go through.

Oh my fault. I thought it was 2. sorry. No intention of lying…

And I could care less who you root for. I posted that people should judge based on football only- you replied… I replied with why you should only base on football and you arent buying it. Go ahead and judge by whatever you want. I was just pointing out to everyone that often situations are just judged by the latest/ most talked about incident- and football is supposed to be above politics/ bickering…

Posted from  United States

and the point of the story I made a mistake on is that there is history of both sides being in the wrong. Nothing more, nothing less. I stand by my statement and urge people to judge based on football and nothing else…

Posted from  United States

Yeah, I think we’re done here

Excuse me guys but those who just read the papers and reports mainly published by Algerian news reports in Cairo who actually went so far as reporting fake deaths of Algerians need to really wake up and smell the coffee. The idiotic Algerian team players while they tried to frame the Egyptians for the FIFA to cancel the game, actually shot themselves with their camera smashing their own bus to frame the Egyptians in order to move the game outside. Only Pathetic losers do that . The incidents in the first game in Algeria as well as their riots in France , Egypt and Sudan just shows how far the Algerians are desperately willing to go in order to reach the World Cup. This makes me sick and it doesn’t take a genius to know who started this mess. So Jose or whatever your name is go do some research and start by checking the websites of the Algerian Newspapers. You will be surprised how could these lunatics call themselves journalists in the first place. The fabricate complete stories and the result is what we are having today.. It makes no odd to me or any Egyptian if Non- Egyptians may support Algeria because we believe in ourselves and need no one’s sympathy . However, we have always been generous and friendly people but we will not let some goons step on our toes and tarnish our reputation just for the sake of qualifying to the world cup on our account. The Egyptian Team won the 2006- 2008 consequentially and don’t need the help of hooligans to win a game because they are the current African Champions.

JUSTICE

Posted from  United States

Hey EgyptForever! Go to Youtube and listen to your star anchor comments (the hysterical fat bold guy)…… to be fair, you have to listen to what he said after Egypt won on Nov 14 2009 in Cairo – by the way, no mention of what happened to the Algerian players and fans obviously – vs. what he ended up saying after the loss in Sudan. Once you do that, I’ll let you judge who’s the lunatic in the story: Algeria is not the first Nation to witness such tactics from the Egyptians to win a game (ask Tunisia, Morocco or Nigeria) but hey, you can tell us about your pyramids while we celebrate our qualification.
I feel your pain but I’ll let you deal with it )

Posted from  Canada