2 - 8 May 2002
Issue No.584
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 2 - 8 May 2002 Issue No.584 |
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Half-time
Tearful departure
Egypt and myself made an early exit from Mohamed V arena in Casablanca on Friday. When the score stood at 18-12, I could no longer remain seated at court side. By the time it was over, and Tunisia had knocked Egypt, the defending champions, out of the African Nations Cup in handball, I made the quickest getaway I could.
For the past 10 years, I had been accompanying the Egyptian handball team wherever it went -- Japan, Iceland, Senegal -- on its swing of international tournaments, friendly and official. I always felt proud of the team, especially when talking with the foreign media. Egypt did not always win but even while losing it rarely looked bad and, at the very least, always gave its all.
Until this week. For the first time in my career I felt ashamed of being an Egyptian. As I left the stands following Egypt's 25-19 loss to Tunisia, I flipped backwards my ID card, which hung around my neck, so that no one would know who I was and where I came from. However, I was not completely incognito because my tears gave me away.
I was not the only surprised face in the crowd that day. Handball officials in Morocco and elsewhere were scratching their heads wondering what had happened to the fourth best team in the world. Moroccan fans, apparently envious of how high Egypt had risen in the world rankings, made their sentiments crystal clear whenever the Egyptians stepped onto the court and on Friday were thrilled after Egypt was vanquished.
Admittedly, though I was visibly upset, I knew we deserved to be beaten. The qualifying encounters against Senegal, Nigeria and Cameroon revealed the depths the squad had sunk to of late. Despite winning these games, the performance foretold that Egypt would be incapable of defending its continental title.
And the prediction was all too true, mainly the result of a poor choice of coach then the failure of Egyptian officials to admit that his hiring was a mistake. For the past eight months, Croatian Vladimir Klaitsch has been in charge of the team, achieving modest results in several friendly championships. The results were always put down to warm-up matches that are hard to get up for with the same intensity as when playing in the real thing. But it was apparent that with Klaitsch at the helm, the players had become incapable of turning on the faucet when it most counted.
At a press conference before the team travelled to Morocco, Hassan Mustafa, president of both the Egyptian and the international handball federations, had nothing but praise for Klaitsch and his accomplishments. In Morocco, however, the truth came out of the bag in a hurry. Accordingly, Klaitsch was sacked overnight and replaced by his Egyptian assistant. Promises of a new chapter and victory gushed forth, but lost amid the expectations of a new beginning was the fact that a change of coach in mid-championship -- in any sport -- rarely leads to the pot of gold -- and there would be no exception in Casablanca.
Mustafa will have to answer the many questions awaiting him in Egypt. After that he will have to choose: either find a way to remain among the sport's powerhouses or get ready to make way for other nations which include long-time Maghreb rivals Tunisia and Algeria. The choice is obvious but the means of achieving the goal is not so clear anymore.
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