I'm afraid this post contains expletives. Not about the football, mind. The football scarcely merits comment, except to say I've never seen an English defence made to look so porous.
English football fans are notorious around the world for their despicable conduct. For some reason it brings the worst out of us, as a nation. I'm lucky enough only to have witnessed such behaviour on a handful of occasions. Sadly, today that list grew.
I don't meet many fellow Englishmen here in Cairo - it's mainly Americans and continental sorts I run into around and about. I was pleased, then, to see a compatriot greet me as I sat down to watch the match in a trendy and peaceful garden cafe in the leafy suburb of Maadi.
As Rooney and Defoe kicked off, a gentleman with a shock of hair which hardly looked his own asked if he could make use of one of the empty chairs at our table. I obliged - the more the merrier.
When an offside Miroslav Klose breezed past the hapless Matthew Upson to fire home Germany's first, the strange-haired man raised his fists and cheered. A German equivalent of "get in!" The Englishman and I exchanged glances, shellshocked and in awe of Upson's pathetic effort at "defending".
Minutes later, Podolski slotted home the second, and the German cheered again. His ecstasy must have been directly disproportional to my dismay. This was too much for my countryman. Concepts of stiff upper-lipped sportsmanship went out the window as the Englishman, maybe a little younger than myself, began a foul-mouthed tirade. "Stop screaming in my fucking ear! Just shut the fuck up." Turning, he moved to within a few inches of the German's face and let out an ugly shout, demonstrating his grievance. "How do you like it? I'll give you something to fucking scream about."
The stunned German tried to reason with him - it's only a game, just because you're losing... Upson made amends for his earlier mistake to make it 2-1, and once again the offensive youth turned, screaming in the German's face, nose to nose. The German sat peacefully, barely remonstrating, which seemed only to inflame the Englishman. As waiters and customers tried to calm the situation and prevent the young man from becoming more physically aggressive, I wanted to curl into a ball and hope no one would remember that I too was English. It was all I could do to meekly ask the waiters to turn the character out on his heels, and pray for any Germans celebrating their team in England. The waiters offered to reseat the Germany supporter. He politely declined.
As the screen showed replay after replay of the goal that never was, the German went out of his way to placate the young Englishman - it was a goal, it's clear, I'm sorry. The graceful self-deprecation continued throughout the match, and as the third and fourth went in, it was a more muted celebration shown. Fists in the air, but tight-lipped.
As the German left the match, I tried to apologise for my countryman's behaviour, but he didn't seem to listen, only extending his condolences about the margin of the result.
What it is about football, about England-Germany matches in particular, that leads us to such indignity is not entirely clear to me. There is simply no reasonable justification or explanation. I'm not sure I've ever felt quite so ashamed, embarrassed in front of my foreign colleagues and the gentle Egyptian waiters.
If, by chance, the Englishman I ran into today is reading this: You should be deeply, profoundly ashamed of yourself. I sincerely hope our paths never again cross, either in this crazy city or another. You have single handedly lost me my appetite for football at the time when it should be most celebrated.
Leaving the match, I felt sick to the stomach. And not at the result.
It appears that the title of my last post was wistfully inaccurate. I've only just seen this and spoken to Clarabelle (a Zamalek resident), so I'm perhaps not best placed to comment at the moment, except to say that this has shocked me almost to the point of disbelief. Here are some pictures from Khaled Zohny's Facebook page (apologies in advance for any copyright infringement):
You could hear the party going on in Boursa from streets away. Hundreds upon hundreds of people in eager anticipation of Egypt's return to the international football elite and the chance to see their side in action against the world's best. An hour before the match, there wasn't a spare seat to be found and the noise was simply deafening - typical football songs through mixed with chants with a curiously religious overtone. I admire the Egyptian passion for football, it's a wonderful feeling to be in amongst the dancing, music, flag waving. It wasn't just young men either, there were women, scarved and unscarved, of all ages present, and a real feeling of community that I haven't experienced in a long time.
After all that singing, drumming and dancing, the match itself was something of a let down. Algeria played a hard game and scored a great goal, but their time wasting antics coupled with some inept refereeing meant the match wasn't the spectacle it should have been. Egypt spurned chance after chance whilst Algeria scraped their one shot and one goal. The crowd's cheers of "Ya rab!" (Oh Lord!) for Egypt's set plays turned from expectant, to hopeful, to desperate, and the fans seemed to have given up hope by the time the fourth official signalled an astonishingly short 4 minutes of time to be added on. Alas, it wasn't to be, and now Egypt has to wait another 4 years for a shot at World Cup qualification.
Football aside, it's been a busy week since getting back from Karachi, I feel like I've not had five spare minutes as I try and catch up with Meedan, teaching, and copy editing. In amongst all this I'm trying to prepare applications for universities and funding in the UK, a process which takes more time than you could ever imagine. The most frustrating thing will be the wait after I send the applications, as I may not know where I'm going to be next year until months after the deadlines - all I can do is pray and sit tight. It's quite astonishing to think I've already been back here for over 5 months and have only four short weeks before I go home for Christmas, something I'm looking forward to greatly.
More tomorrow, I hope. I have a rather wonderful book and some nice music I want to tell you about.
Back in Cairo after a great time in Karachi, and the football fever that was ubiquitous on my leaving has only intensified on my return. Sunday night witnessed a huge game here in Cairo, one that I sadly missed, with Egypt scraping the 2-0 win they needed against Algeria, forcing a play-off in a neutral venue. That game is tonight, and right now the tension and excitement here are tangible.
School has been cancelled tonight, happily meaning I can watch THE game, and I have a spot booked at a place I reckon will make a good venue. Cars are honking their horns, the 'ahwas were filling up at 4pm (are they ever empty) and Egypt flags are everywhere; cars, balconies, shops, faces. If Egypt win today, this place will go nuts - I can't wait!
Photos and match experiences to follow! Yallah Masr!
Just a quick post today, in honour of Egypt's masterful mauling of Italy last night. Watched the game with the CASA kids in Gad (budget kebab and kofta chain) Maadi, the place went crazy at the final whistle after an outrageously tense final 15 mins, where Hadari kept Egypt's hopes alive. With performances like that against Brazil and Italy, should have no problem brushing aside the US and qualify from the group on their march to the final! Yallah Misr! I can't think of anywhere else I've been that a group stage victory in the Confederations CUp would have been celebrated with dancing on the street, it all brought back wonderful memories of the African Cup of Nations victory 18 months ago.
Great news: at long last we have in-flat internet! It's not an ideal situation (running a 30ft cable from the landlord's flat through our window) but the exhausting routine of trekking around 4 or 5 internet and wireless-capable cafés is finally over. This also means that I can once again return to Tom in Egypt, as for the past few days whenever I've been near an internet connection I've been hooked to following what's going on in Iran. As if I didn't have big enough Twitter addiction problems already....
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