Egypt failed to improve the weak aspects of their game to miss out on the chance of ending a 20-year wait to reach the World Cup, gifting the last African ticket to fierce rivals Algeria. A goal from central defender Antar Yahia five minutes before the break was all what Algeria needed to shatter Egypt's hopes of qualifying for the football's most prestigious event for the first time since 1990. Egypt relied on useless long balls during their last-gasp 2-0 victory over Algeria that forced Wednesday's playoff in Sudan and maintained such an unfruitful strategy in the decider. In a carbon copy of what happened at Cairo Stadium on Saturday, Algeria defenders found no difficulty containing Egypt's strike duo Amr Zaki and Emad Meteb, who struggled to win aerial challenges. "We have to change the way we play, those long balls are no longer useful," Egyptian commentator Mahmoud Bakr shouted midway through the second half, but to no avail. When the Pharaohs' smooth style finally came into effect, with forwards and wingers exchanging silky passes, they created several clear-cut opportunities which could have given them the equalizer. They soon returned to their inexplicable habit to make Algeria's defense mission much easier in the latter stages of the game. Egypt also failed to defensively deal with long balls, with one of them causing havoc in the backline to allow Yahia to smash a powerful volley into the roof of the net. Small Pitch
Algeria win aerial challenges On Saturday, Egypt players exposed some gaps in Algeria's defense and were largely helped by the relatively large size of the pitch. This was not the case at Al-Merreikh's Stadium in Sudanese city Omdurman, with the small dimensions of the pitch derailing their attempts. Algeria defended in numbers to thwart the Egyptians' efforts in the second period. "Every time (keeper) Essam Al-Hadari played a goal-kick, the ball went straight to the Algerian keeper. The pitch is very small," Gaish coach and Nile Sports analyst Farouk Gaafar said. "Such pitches heavily benefit teams who have a defensive mentality like Algeria." Egypt players were also to blame for failing to make any use of numerous corner kicks and free kicks throughout the 90 minutes. Ahmed Hassan's crosses from set pieces were far from accurate, with Algeria defenders comfortably heading the ball away. The corners of playmaker Mohamed Abou-Treika, who failed to sparkle in the two successive encounters against Algeria, were beyond the reach of his teammates. "I did not see a single corner kick directed to the six-yard box," Gaafar added in a disappointing tone.
