EGYPT'S national team lost a golden opportunity to qualify for the Mexico U-17 World Cup this June after failing to reach the semi-finals of the African championship. Egypt fell in Group A which included host Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Senegal while Group B had defending champions Gambia, Congo, Ivory Coast and Mali. Egypt won their first game against Senegal 2-1 despite having been behind 1-0. But they then lost to Rwanda 1-0 before being crushed by Burkina Faso 4-0, leaving Egypt with no chance in either tournament. "I can't believe it," Egyptian team coach Mohamed Omar said after the game. "The team was perfect before the matches and they won their first encounter but became over-confident. We worked on this and tried to bring the players' hopes down to earth but as they are young they were excited, losing a golden chance to represent their country in the U-17 World Cup." Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Congo and hosts Rwanda emerged from the group phase and in doing so booked their tickets to Mexico. In 2009 Egypt failed to reach the 2010 World Cup after falling to Algeria. Egypt, though, will be playing in the African U-20 championship starting in Libya in March. The semi- finalists go to the FIFA U-20 World Cup to be held in Colombia next year.
