Egypt beats Cameroon 1-0
Egypt beats Cameroon 1-0 and lifts the Africa Cup… what does it mean to an Indian living in Cairo… and especially when that Indian is I. Does it mean anything… yes it does.
Egyptians are mad about football… same was as we are about Cricket. They are yet to attain any big glory in the game that is dominated by the Europeans and Latinos. Therefore, their sense of accomplishment is hinged more on their achievements at regional pursuits… Pan Arabic Games… African Cup etc. Mind you excelling in even these regional pursuits is not all that easy… these areas have some of the very good sides… Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast… Saudi Arabia, Yemen etc.
So yesterday when the finals between Cameroon and Egypt was due for the Africa Cup… this nation was waiting for it with baited breath… there was an air of excitement all around… people were talking about possibilities and permutation & combinations… about how Abutrika will win them the Africa Cup… and how the rankings don’t just matter. I have been vastly oblivious to the proceedings before this… when Egypt thrashed Cameroon, Sudan, Ghana, Ivory Coast on its way to final… barring a match with Sudan, that was hardly a match.
However, a final is a final… and I just could not sustain my aloofness for even a minute more… I was at one of my friends place to see the match.
Egypt seemed to be a well oiled and supremely confident side… they place very aggressively… and were attacking often… until they just could not get pass beyond the extra-fortified Cameroon defense. Cameroon was just not confident enough… they played too defensively… most of its players confined themselves to their half. Barring Eto’o, there was hardly anyone from Cameroonian side that could pose any challenge to the Egyptian Defense. I thought that they are trying an age-old tactics of suddenly upping the pace of the game during the dying minutes… Argentina, South Korea are its biggest proponents. However, it was not to be… they kept on being dominated.
Then when all of a sudden Abutrika got the ball all by himself… and a goal that was being protected by a goal keeper and a defender… he made no mistakes in dodging them both to score a simple goal. He was the man of the moment… who did not have a particularly satisfying tournament, but performed when it was most required. And what can be more satisfying that that.
However, even though Cameroon lost I have special words of praise for their player Eto’o… who almost single handedly challenged the might of Egypt… he was to Cameroon, what Zidane has been to France a few years ago… only that he could not get his team the match.
And as soon as Egypt won… Cairo erupted…with joy and with excitement. When I was walking towards my house… I saw a pack of almost 100 people dancing on the road, stopping the traffic, using small LPG canisters to create fire… humming victory tune… I was watching them, and wondering what it would have been like being in India when it won the 20-20 World Cup a few months ago.
The Doorman of my building told me that if I want to see the real fun… I must head towards the Downtown. He cautioned, however, that all the roads will be blocked and there wouldn’t be any place to drive… so I better walk down the place.
I walked through the roads of Cairo… for almost three hours from 10 pm until about 1 am… and the celebration did not seem to stop even for a second. The route that I took was this… Zamalek- 26th July Bridge- Bulaq- Downtown- Talaat Harb- Midan Tehrir- Qasr El Aini Bridge- Gezira- Zamalek. And all along the route, the celebrations just got bigger and bigger and even bigger
Zamalek was erupting and so was Bulaq… the contrast however was the socio-economic class that was enjoying… Zamalek is the wealthy neighbourhood, whereas Bulaq is the lower middle class… the ecstasy was the same and yet the modes of expressing them was different… if cars were honking in Zamalek… motorcycles were roaring in Bulaq. It made me wonder… how sports often works as a gelling factor in disparate societies… take for instance… where people forget caste and economic difference for a while to celebrate the victory of India over Pakistan (and now Australia, Pakistan is a passé- we have made a habit of defeating Pakistan for quite some time now)
Then I arrived at the downtown that is the melting point of celebrators of different places… a place to gather and enjoy communally. The pack got bigger and bigger… the excitement got wilder and wilder. Families joined in, girls joined in… I was left wondering if that could have happened in India… where women are excluded and alienated from our biggest passion cricket. I was loving the secularity of the game… how it is able to unite communal differences in Egypt… how it was gelling boys and girls, how it is gelling the rich and poor, how it is gelling Christians and Muslims.
A bit further, in Talaat Harb, there was an even bigger crowd… and then in Midan Tehrir… there was a sea of humanity that was celebrating. I was seeing the power of the masses and the power of the youth at display
Suddenly I thought… what if this power gets unleashed uncontrollably… Youth in Egypt is facing tremendous hardships- no jobs, no marriage, no support from the government… what if!!!!!
Egyptians are mad about football… same was as we are about Cricket. They are yet to attain any big glory in the game that is dominated by the Europeans and Latinos. Therefore, their sense of accomplishment is hinged more on their achievements at regional pursuits… Pan Arabic Games… African Cup etc. Mind you excelling in even these regional pursuits is not all that easy… these areas have some of the very good sides… Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast… Saudi Arabia, Yemen etc.
So yesterday when the finals between Cameroon and Egypt was due for the Africa Cup… this nation was waiting for it with baited breath… there was an air of excitement all around… people were talking about possibilities and permutation & combinations… about how Abutrika will win them the Africa Cup… and how the rankings don’t just matter. I have been vastly oblivious to the proceedings before this… when Egypt thrashed Cameroon, Sudan, Ghana, Ivory Coast on its way to final… barring a match with Sudan, that was hardly a match.
However, a final is a final… and I just could not sustain my aloofness for even a minute more… I was at one of my friends place to see the match.
Egypt seemed to be a well oiled and supremely confident side… they place very aggressively… and were attacking often… until they just could not get pass beyond the extra-fortified Cameroon defense. Cameroon was just not confident enough… they played too defensively… most of its players confined themselves to their half. Barring Eto’o, there was hardly anyone from Cameroonian side that could pose any challenge to the Egyptian Defense. I thought that they are trying an age-old tactics of suddenly upping the pace of the game during the dying minutes… Argentina, South Korea are its biggest proponents. However, it was not to be… they kept on being dominated.
Then when all of a sudden Abutrika got the ball all by himself… and a goal that was being protected by a goal keeper and a defender… he made no mistakes in dodging them both to score a simple goal. He was the man of the moment… who did not have a particularly satisfying tournament, but performed when it was most required. And what can be more satisfying that that.
However, even though Cameroon lost I have special words of praise for their player Eto’o… who almost single handedly challenged the might of Egypt… he was to Cameroon, what Zidane has been to France a few years ago… only that he could not get his team the match.
And as soon as Egypt won… Cairo erupted…with joy and with excitement. When I was walking towards my house… I saw a pack of almost 100 people dancing on the road, stopping the traffic, using small LPG canisters to create fire… humming victory tune… I was watching them, and wondering what it would have been like being in India when it won the 20-20 World Cup a few months ago.
The Doorman of my building told me that if I want to see the real fun… I must head towards the Downtown. He cautioned, however, that all the roads will be blocked and there wouldn’t be any place to drive… so I better walk down the place.
I walked through the roads of Cairo… for almost three hours from 10 pm until about 1 am… and the celebration did not seem to stop even for a second. The route that I took was this… Zamalek- 26th July Bridge- Bulaq- Downtown- Talaat Harb- Midan Tehrir- Qasr El Aini Bridge- Gezira- Zamalek. And all along the route, the celebrations just got bigger and bigger and even bigger
Zamalek was erupting and so was Bulaq… the contrast however was the socio-economic class that was enjoying… Zamalek is the wealthy neighbourhood, whereas Bulaq is the lower middle class… the ecstasy was the same and yet the modes of expressing them was different… if cars were honking in Zamalek… motorcycles were roaring in Bulaq. It made me wonder… how sports often works as a gelling factor in disparate societies… take for instance… where people forget caste and economic difference for a while to celebrate the victory of India over Pakistan (and now Australia, Pakistan is a passé- we have made a habit of defeating Pakistan for quite some time now)
Then I arrived at the downtown that is the melting point of celebrators of different places… a place to gather and enjoy communally. The pack got bigger and bigger… the excitement got wilder and wilder. Families joined in, girls joined in… I was left wondering if that could have happened in India… where women are excluded and alienated from our biggest passion cricket. I was loving the secularity of the game… how it is able to unite communal differences in Egypt… how it was gelling boys and girls, how it is gelling the rich and poor, how it is gelling Christians and Muslims.
A bit further, in Talaat Harb, there was an even bigger crowd… and then in Midan Tehrir… there was a sea of humanity that was celebrating. I was seeing the power of the masses and the power of the youth at display
Suddenly I thought… what if this power gets unleashed uncontrollably… Youth in Egypt is facing tremendous hardships- no jobs, no marriage, no support from the government… what if!!!!!
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