SUEZ: Egypt s disappointing performance at the Under-20 World Cup has left coach Miroslav Soukup wondering whether his contract will be renewed. The Young Pharaohs failed to make the quarterfinals after an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Costa Rica on Tuesday. Fans booed and pelted players with plastic water bottles after they had rarely threatened their opponents. Of course, the results of a national team are always the coach s responsibility, Soukup said. I ll have discussions with the federation, the 43-year-old Czech coach added. My contract is up on the Oct. 30. That would be the case regardless of (Tuesday s) result. Soukup was picked by the hosts after he led his native Czech Republic to the final at the last U20 World Cup in Canada, where his team lost to Argentina 2-1. Egypt had led its group after beating Trinidad and Tobago 4-1, then falling 2-1 to 10-man Paraguay, before returning to form with a stunning 4-2 win over Italy. By contrast, the Costa Ricans had scraped through, after losing to Brazil 5-0 in their opening match. But on Tuesday, the Egyptians struggled throughout their game against Costa Rica, which defended after an early goal and scored their second on a counterattack near the end of the game. This is the first game we couldn t score. We have been scoring well in all our other games. But today we attacked and had no luck, said Soukup, who played three strikers in the second half after only starting with one. We had scored nine goals using one attacker. The first goal affected us and the changes we made failed to change the result. ... They defended with six or seven players at the back and we couldn t get through, he added. They were very fast on the break and it s the counterattacks that cost us the game. Egypt s exit is likely to hurt attendance at the matches for the rest of the tournament. The young Egyptians filled the 70,000-seat stadiums in Cairo and Alexandria - with supporters spurred on by Egyptian success at the senior level. Egypt won the last two African Cup of Nations tournaments and has six continental titles, while Cairo club Al Ahly is the current champion of the African Champions League. But the bulk of fans at other games during the under-20 tournament has been made up of army conscripts bused in and issued brightly colored tracksuits to wear at games. Egypt s under-20 team has qualified for the World Cup five times, making it as far as third place in 2001.
