Downtown Cairo, People watching the game in a street cafeBefore last night's game, I took a flu medication-induced rest - and dreamt that Egypt won 4-0 against Algeria. I shared my subconscious' prediction with friends - and I have a time-stamped Tweet to prove it! - and was met by nervous laughs ahead of a difficult game with a staunch adversary.
And win we did. 4-nil, as predicted, with three players expelled from the Algerian team, including its goalkeeper - it was almost too embarrassing to gloat.
Emphasis on 'almost'.
Mind you, like most of the people who took the streets I am a 'light' football aficionado, and have only a passing interest in the local league. But also like most of them I've been following the Egyptian selection's course in the African Cup of Nations currently being held in Angola, and yesterday's game had an unmistakable taste of vendetta - mainly because, as those who follow African football, Egypt has endured a painful defeat and lost its ticket to the World Cup this summer to Algeria in a tie-breaker held in Sudan's Umm-Durman stadium, which earned itself the nickname, in both Egyptian and Algerian media, of "the battle of Umm-Durman".
The days before the game were surprisingly calm, especially if you compare it to the frantic, electric, and eventually violent ambiance that preceded and immediately followed the last Algeria-Egypt game in November, during the World cup qualifiers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs attempted to coordinate with its Algerian counterpart. A nervous League of Arab States declaration reminded of "the fraternal relations between the two countries".
This past week then it was almost a hushed, worried murmur that went around Cairo when Algeria gloriously defeated Cote d'Ivoire on January 24th to qualify to the semi-finals - overcoming a one-goal handicap to dominate in overtime, leaving the Ivorians - and the Egyptians - in disbelief.
But the Egyptian media remained suprisingly quiet - it was later made public that an official directive was issued by Egyptian Information minister Anas Al-Fiqi during his meeting on Tuesday the 24th of January with the heads of state-controlled television channels. He afterward issued a declaration asking the press and widely-watched privately-owned satellite television networks and channels, who played an unmistakable part in inflaming emotions during the November matches, to keep emotions down, emphasizing "the necessity for the media to handle the Egypt-Algeria game in a balanced, quiet and objective fashion, and to not allow emotions to draw us away from objectivity and professionalism, and to address it from a national standpoint and view it as a sporting, not a political event".
The directives which were both lauded, for their necessity, and severely criticized for the abhorrent intervention it represents in the editorial choices of supposedly private independent press and television. They nevertheless seemingly abided by the ban on inflammatory comments, and it was quite entertaining to watch the most virulent commentators, such as Amr Adib, being restrained by their co-hosts.
Even flags were far less ubiquitous that in past November. But for most everyone, winning the semi-final against Algeria seemed to be the end and purpose of the team's presence in Angola - that it was merely the semi-final to the championship game took a definite backseat.
On the Algerian side, there were no apparent such restrictions on the media and the most extreme press remained true to itself, but there too was far less displays of populism, an attitude boosted by confidence from their previous win against this very Egyptian team, as well as their excellent performance during the African cup until then.
This confidence may have turned into overconfidence and cost the Algerian team dearly, leading to a stinging defeat that shook the Algerian nets four times, and an increase of rough play that led to a flurry of yellow and red cards fall on the Algerians who only played with their full squad for the first 38 minutes - and ultimately finished the game with 8 men on the field.
Egyptians took the streets en masse until dawn as expected, creating those 3 AM traffic jams only Cairenes are capable of. The spoke of 'regained honour' and that 'winning this game was worth more than the entire championship'. Even the President's son, Alaa Mubarak - who was very vocal in November - called-in live on several television networks with the same message of congratulations and sentiment of vindication.
But everyone also kept a worried eye on the reaction of the Algerian and Egyptian fans in Angola, as the epicenter of violence after the November match was neither in Cairo or Algiers but immediately outside the Sudanese stadium. There were reasons to worry, too - the Algerian government and private companies had sponsored airline tickets, slashing prices from 200,000 Algerian dinars ($2759) to 60,000 dinars ($827) for 1000 fans, while Egypt sent one plane-load - reportedly 150 persons - to cheer the national team.
Worries also ran high on the situation in Algeria, due to the presence of a large Egyptian expat community and substantial investments that had been attacked and set on fire by angry mobs in November.
Throughout the night after the game however, despite widespread popular and press anger directed mainly at the referee of the game, no incidents have been declared - the only match-related police intervention in Algeria took place in girls' dorm at Constantine university to separate a post-game all-Algerian brawl. In France, police arrested one angry Algerian fan in Marseille. Algerian commentaries nevertheless were keen on pointing out that "there's a World Cup to focus on" - a not-so-subtle jab at the Egyptians.
Now vindicated, Egyptians have a remarkable 4-nil score to rub in the Algerians' faces. Likewise, Algerians only need hint at their World Cup qualification to infuriate the most stoic of Egyptian fans. In effect, it's an equilibrium of fan terror that leads to the burial of the hatchet.
Until the next big match? When that one takes place, I'll make sure I'm also under flu medication. It seems to work.
In the mean time, Egyptians should focus on the Cup's final game against Ghana on Sunday, in a bid to win their third consecutive title and seventh altogether.
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