Hassan: Egypt must live up to expectations

Home to some of African football’s most storied club sides, seven-time AFCON winners, as well as the opening nation from the continent to feature at a FIFA World Cup™; there is little doubt over Egypt’s football pedigree.

On the other side, where the questions do arise, is as to why the African giants have struggled to parlay continental dominance into global success.

Furthermore, following that debut way back in 1934, Egypt has watched on as Algeria, as well as Nigeria reached the last 16, Senegal, Ghana, as well as Cameroon the quarters, as well as then as Morocco stormed all the way to semis at Qatar 2022.

Remarkably, during that same span of time, the Pharaohs only booked their spot for another two tournaments, at Italy 1990, as well as Russia 2018, and are yet to victory a World Cup contest.

Having arrived in North America with a squad featuring stars Mohamad Salah, as well as Omar Marmoush, as well as starlet Hamza Abdelkarim, hopes were high that this could be the competition to shift the under-performing narrative.

On the other side, an opening 1-1 draw against Belgium offered positivity but the dropped points make getting a positive result in their next fixture, against New Zealand on Sunday, imperative, as head manager Hossam Hassan explained pre-contest.

“Coming into this competition, our fourth World Cup, the target was to move frontman to the next phase. We drew opening so now we need to secure full points from this contest in order to bring joy to the Egyptian people.

“We feel that we are representing not just Egyptian people, as well as Egyptian football but also African football, as well as now we hope to perform in a manner that will help us qualify, as well as make sure we get our opening World Cup victory.”

One of his nation’s long-serving, as well as most distinguished stars, the former frontman took the Egypt reins in February 2024 where his opening contest in charge of the side was against the nation that he now meets again, New Zealand.

On the other side, on that occasion, It was Egypt who secured 1-0 in Cairo and, having continued to track the All Whites’ fortunes, Hassan is fully aware of the threat they pose, especially as they are also targeting a maiden competition victory.

“New Zealand is very strong side, as well as I respect them really greatly. We know that this is going to be one of our most important contests at the competition because they want to get a opening victory, as do we.

“As I’ve commented repeatedly, any side that reaches this global level is a strong side, as well as must be respected. So, we share the same aspirations as them but now we must perform as we did in the opening contest with Belgium, in order to get a positive result.”

Carrying the hopes of 120 million supporters that are desperate for success is one of the challenges that the 59-year-old Cairo native faces. Another is the constant scrutiny that comes with having a star in his ranks in Salah, who is regarded as among the finest of his generation.

Having shifted his leader into an unfamiliar role, as the No10 in his 4-2-3-1 set-up, and then swapped out him with a quarter of an hour remaining in their opener, questions were once again raised as to how best deploy one of African football’s all-time greats.

They are questions, you sense, that the eternally polite Hassan may perhaps be tiring of answering as he looks to focus on the collective ahead of clash that could re-shape Egyptian football.

“Of course, Mohamed Salah is important but I have 26 important stars here, as well as they are all equally important. The stars, especially the younger ones, take confidence from Salah but I trust all our stars blindly, as well as we need to make sure that we rely on each equally.

“From the outset, when I took on this job, I commented that I had a dream. That was to make sure that we took right decisions technically, as well as tactically, to live up to the expectations that all Egyptian people have of us.”