Despite not qualifying to the upcoming World Cup, the Egyptian national team has been putting in good performances lately against teams like Bosnia, Chile and Jamaica. The team that suffered a heavy loss against Ghana in the playoffs of the World Cup qualifiers 6-1 is now changing its skin with its new coach Shawki Gharib. Although new to the top man's position, Gharib is an old face on the national team bench. The former Mahala player was an assistant coach to former national team coach, Hassan Shehata. Gharib might be a trifle luckier than Shehata, however, with many young players in the squad playing in Europe. Shehata led the team to three African Cup of Nations titles with a group of local players. Fans are expecting Gharib to exceed Shehata's achievements, having high caliber players in Europe led by Mohamed Salah in the English top team, Chelsea. In the Premier League, Ahmed El-Mohamadi plays for Hull City, this year's runner up for the FA Cup. Gharib also has players like defender Ali Ghazal, who plays for Nacional Madeira in Portugal and might soon join Porto, one of the biggest teams in Portugal. Young defensive midfielder, Saleh Gomaa, is Ghazal's teammate, in addition to two other players in Portugal, Shikabala in Sporting Lisbon and Koka in Rio Avi. Moving to Switzerland, Mohamed El-Nenni and Kahraba play for the two top teams in the Swiss League. Italy, too, has acquired some Egyptian flavour with Ahmed Hegazi returning from a long injury recuperation time to his team Fiorentina. In addition to these players, Hossam Ghali is representing Egypt in the Belgian League with Lierse. With an unprecedented number of Egyptian players in Europe, Gharib is expected to use them well. He also has very promising young talents in the local league, such as Ahli's defender, Rami Rabia, and his teammate striker, Amr Gamal. He also has winger Omar Gaber from Zamalek and others. Shehata's former assistant debuted as the national team coach against Bosnia, winning two to nil. Premier League winner Edin Džeko led the Bosnian offense while Salah led the Egyptian. Salah made an impact scoring one of the two Egyptian goals, while Džeko was cut off by the Egyptian defense. Out of the three matches Egypt played under Gharib's management, Chile was probably the most powerful experience playing on their own land. The South American team has players in top teams like Juventus, Basel, Valencia, and to top them all, the superstar of the team, Alexis Sanchez, in Barcelona. In that match, Gharib started out with what looked like a defensive squad, with eight defensive players on the field. The Chilean team started out strong creating many chances but lacking the final touch. Despite so, it was Egypt that scored the first goal through its superstar, Salah, after a missed pass from the Chileans followed by a one touch from El-Nenni to Salah behind the opponent's defense. Salah made use of his speed, catching the ball and putting it inside the net after just twelve minutes. Four minutes later, Khalid Qamar scored the second for Egypt in exactly the same way after a long pass from Ghazal behind the Chilean defense. Qamar netted the ball in a cinematic way with a beautiful lob over the experienced goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo. With the 2-0 lead, Egypt went back to defend, as Sherif Ekrami, Egypt's goalkeeper, became the star of the night for the Egyptians, blocking many dangerous balls from Vargas, Sanchez, Isla, and Diaz. The latter, however, managed to get the first goal for the red team with an eye-pleasing strike on Ekrami's right on the 26th minute. The second half witnessed a huge fitness drop from the Egyptian side. Despite making the first change in half time replacing Ghali with Gaber and replacing goalkeeper Ekrami with veteran Essam El-Hadari, it was all Chile still in the second half. Making few changes as well, Chile managed to totally dominate the game. As time passed, it looked like the Egyptians were getting increasingly tired. Vargas scored the equaliser 15 minutes into the second half. Hosny Abd Rabo, Ibrahim Abdul Khaliq, and Bassim Morsi came in for Rabia, El-Mohamadi, and Qamar in order to get the team back on track and give them a chance to show their abilities. It was not to be the case, though, as Vargas stroked Egypt again with his second personal goal and third for Chile on the 78th minute. For the final twelve minutes, Egypt could not get back in the game, which finished with the final score of 3-2 for the home team. Despite the loss, Egypt was not a bad team on the pitch. Losing the 2-0 lead, however, highlights two major problems that need to be fixed before the African Cup of Nations qualifications. The first problem is the miscommunication between players, especially in defense. Gharib will have to work on the tactical moves of the defense line and increase the solidarity between the defenders on the pitch. The three Chilean goals show weak marking and pressure from the defense. The first Chilean goal came as the Egyptian defense watched Diaz get the ball inside the box all alone, lift it up, and shoot in the net under no pressure at all. The two other goals were in similar fashion, as Vargas caught the ball behind the defense under no pressure and with no marking at all, getting one on one with the keeper. The second problem that Gharib will have to fix is the fitness drop in the second half. Egypt played that match against Chile like Atletico Madrid played the Champions League final against Real Madrid. Gharib played with zone defense and depended on counter attacks, knowing the difference in talents between his team and the opponent. Such a plan requires a very high fitness level and speed to be able to defend strongly and swiftly, take the ball to your opponent's goal and return quickly if you lose the ball. After a long tiring season, Atletico could not manage to hold on to a 1-0 lead over Real Madrid that was more powerful in talent and fitness. Just the same way, Egypt could not hold on to the 2-0 lead and could not create counter attacks in the second half. The difference between the two examples, though, is that the Egyptian players did not have the same tiring season Atletico had. The players need to increase their physical fitness or it will come back to haunt them again later in the important African matches. Gharib has to keep in mind that one of the main characteristics of African players is high physical fitness. Despite everything, the national team looks promising with the sheer amount of talent on the squad. Gharib cannot be evaluated yet based on three matches, but his coaching abilities seem to be promising. In a problems-laden country, fans are now hoping that Gharib and his players could once more put a smile on their faces.
