Adam

FPL lover and @LFC

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Dominik Szoboszlai has signed a new long-term contract with Liverpool FC 🙌

[Savvy @lfcsavvy]

Szoboszlai in Liverpool's shocking season:

[Mohamed A. @MidoIndustry]

Mohamed Aboutrika 🇪🇬 - AFCON 2008 🌟

[هاي©️ @Haeldian]

Spain vs Argentina final

[may🇪🇬 @StarryRegulux]

"No man can do what my mom did... I thank her. I hope we can repay her for everything she did for us. it was so difficult. I used to sleep on the street Yes, I would sleep on the street and wake up there. Then I would go to the mosque to shower—

[/+/ @Sxne19iv2]

Kane thinks he's Argentine 😭😭😭

[⚪️ @owenthfc__]

"Never change" and it's him being a total scumbag to a one of the most genuine players in the league, Salah even congratulated us after winning the Europa League.

Without sounding cucked Salah has had many moments in his career where he could've easily behaved like this to Romero & Tottenham, but he never did. Yet the one time Romero is on the favourite's side & Salah is part of the underdogs, Romero shows his lack of class.

Been begging for Romero to leave for 4 years now, it's looking like this Summer will finally be the one it happens. And I cannot wait. When he's not suspended, he's injured. Unless Argentina are playing of course.

[Mohamed Salah @MoSalah]

أنا عارف إنكم لسه زعلانين، بس وعد مني إني هعمل كل اللي في قدرتي عشان أضمن إن دي تكون بداية جديدة للكورة المصرية على الساحة الدولية. التأهل لكأس العالم مش هيكون كفاية، والمشاركة كمان مش كفاية. الفريق ده يستاهل ثقتكم

[Adam @_FPLAdam_]

@NealGardner_ Ignoring all the other people who said otherwise to find your own agenda, nice

[SIR AHMED @midopido21]

Emam Ashour - World Cup 2026

@emamashour98

[Majda 🇩🇿 @Majdaisbroke]

Objectively, Egypt was the best African nation this WC

[Roojiiii @aroojzaidi_]

Me crying after I passed the exam after cheated

[Adam @_FPLAdam_]

@PharaohsXI Can’t forget this man, it’s not fair its genuinely not fair. We should be celebrating being in the QF rn. When will justice be served in football

[The Touchmine | 𝐓 @TouchmineX]

Alexis Mac Allister covered his mouth to insult someone in the Egypt's staff, which according to FIFAs new rules should've been straight RED. 🟥🇦🇷

Bias after bias. 🤪

[Pharaohs XI 🇪🇬 @PharaohsXI]

🇪🇬 Egypt World Cup postmortem - Hossam Hassan

We'll separate threads by position or player, or else this post will be way too long. Apologies in advance for how long it already is. We'd be remiss if we didn't begin with head coach Hossam Hassan.

Long regarded as something of a people's champ, the legendary striker had a decent but unspectacular managerial record prior to his appointment as Pharaohs boss. He also lacked any pro coaching license credential, though he has since started the process. There is no word on whether that has been completed.

As the Egypt FA is want to do, it replaces its self-sabotage hiring of sub par foreign managers with cheaper, domestic options. Initially that was to be former national team defender and Ahly manager Mohamed Yousef.

After a public trial balloon in which it received backlash, the FA opted instead for the most popular domestic option in Hassan and his twin brother.

It's also worth mentioning that many took Egypt president Abdelfattah El Sisi's comments about "results being the same" so Egypt "might as well just hire an Egyptian manager" as a direct order to the sports ministry and FA to save money and hire Egyptian.

While the team wasn't in its worst shape when Hassan took over, it also wasn't anywhere near World Cup form. Several foreign managers rejected the Egypt job after the way the FA, under then president Gamal Allam, parted ways with Carlos Queiroz, leaving Rui Vitoria with full leverage in dictating terms to the FA's Hazem Emam. It's probably not an exaggeration to say Vitoria used the job as something of a vacation for reasons that would derail this post if I listed them.

In between Queiroz and Vitoria was a horrific three-match stint under the late Ehab Galal (RIP) in which Egypt lost 2-0 to Ethiopia in an AFCON qualifier and 4-1 to South Korea in a friendly.

There were clear tactical holes and naivety in Hassan's first few matches in charge; friendlies against New Zealand and Croatia.

Fast forward through AFCON qualifiers, World Cup qualifying, and the AFCON finals in Morocco, and progress seemed to be slow. The Pharaohs were getting the job done, but always seemed to leave the feeling that something was missing. Performances always either felt stale or incomplete. Take the first half of their home World Cup qualifier vs. Burkina Faso, for instance. It seemed as though Hossam Hassan's Egypt had fully arrived, only for the tide to turn drastically and for Egypt to hold on for a 2-1 win.

Make no mistake, even the staunchest Hossam Hassan supporters, amongst fans and media alike, had serious doubts. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he had some doubts about himself. Those who had championed his hire had grown much quieter, and rumors of his dismissal grew louder. And those low expectations, which he would go on to exceed, probably helped Hassan retain his job long enough see the World Cup.

Of course, he didn't help his cause much after losses. Some fans were quick to point out that he incessantly criticized other managers on television while failing to take accountability for any failures of his own, going as far as to declare "if you don't support me, you don't support Egypt" after a 2-0 friendly loss to Uzbekistan.

However, something was changing, was brewing, the entire time. In hindsight, his desire to excel at his dream job seems to have fueled the type of progress we hadn't seen at his other stints. And make no mistake, that is not hyperbole.... aside from being a footballer, managing Egypt's national team is absolutely his dream job.

His strength was always as an intense motivator, but Egypt wasn't really lacking in that department. Still, he added to it while evolving tactically and relenting on some stubborn attachments to players like Osama Feisal.

And despite some failures in talent evaluation and squad selection, he did also successfully identify some key additions like Pyramids FC forward Ziko. And while he didn't necessarily discover Haissem Hassan, he was progressive enough to add him to the fold where past Egyptian managers may have been too concerned about the culture fit, given Hassan's lack of Egyptian-Arabic proficiency and his French upbringing. Again, this is significant for an Egyptian manager because it was a first.

Sam Morsy is the closest comparison as far as a cultural misfit, but it was Bob Bradley and Hector Cuper that included him, both foreign managers.

Nevertheless, Egypt were again passable but less than spectacular at AFCON. As reported prior to the tournament, a semifinal berth would likely save his job. Most didn't expect Egypt to even get that far despite appearing in the final just two editions prior. I, myself, predicted only a quarterfinal appearance before the tournament started.

But a thrilling 3-2 win over favorites and defending champions Ivory Coast in the quarterfinals, after surviving an extra-time scare against Benin, meant Hassan's job was safe.

What changed between AFCON and the following international break? Some, again including Hossam Hassan fans, thought there was still a chance he could be dismissed if friendlies against Saudi Arabia and Spain went awry.

Instead, something more clicked. The slow but steady evolution in tactics, squad selection, performance analysis, etc. had reached a tangible new level. Hossam Hassan seemed to graduate from the 'best' local managerial option to simply a solid managerial option for Egypt regardless of nationality. Some felt he was just lucky in a 4-0 thrashing away to Saudi Arabia and a scoreless draw in Spain, not to mention the Ivory Coast win at AFCON. It could be true that there was a mix of Hossam Hassan progression and some luck, but the improvement in the squad started to become undeniable.

However, a cloud of uncertainty still hung over the team, exacerbated by the ghosts of FIFA World and Confederations Cups past. For me, all Hossam Hassan had to do was avoid a repeat of those haunting memories (especially on Matchday 3s), and his World Cup would have been successful because it would have constituted progress for Egypt. I expected no more than 3 points, personally. In fact, 3 point was the maximum we had ever earned at a World or Confederations Cup.

The World Cup opener vs. Belgium was so surprising, and expectations so low, that it prompted vast exaggerations in the overall performance. That performance, by the way, was excellent... tactically sound, individually solid, with top effort and against a top 10-ranked opponent. The exaggerations came from declarations that we outperformed Belgium in every major metric, which was far from accurate. Egypt was, brave, organized, and efficient (yes Ashour missed a great opportunity, but also converted a low xG chance), We were also fortunate, in fairness, that Mohamed Hany wasn't ejected for an early challenge.

Suddenly there was a cautious optimism (though some may claim theirs was always there... if so, fair enough). Egypt were no stranger to beginning these international tournaments well, however. It's in the remainder of said tournaments that the real trouble began.

And then New Zealand takes the lead on Matchday 2 with what was essentially a free header and all the PTSD comes flooding back. An inexcusable mistake that brought back memories of how the team's defense was performing earlier during Hassan's tenure, and even through parts of AFCON, and how it had performed in past international tournaments.

Even if we can still point to some issues, even if there are certain aspects we're still unconvinced with, the turning point against New Zealand was Hossam Hassan's defining moment... the moment he proved doubters, myself included, wrong.

Part of that genius was in having the gall to stick to his plan, stick to what they worked on in training, and make 0 substitutions at halftime. Egypt won, got the World Cup win monkey off its back, and were suddenly an odds-on favorite to advance to the knockout stages given the new format.

He seemed to understandably be caught between two minds vs. Iran... go for the win, or rest players that need it, including for suspension concerns.

Some mistakes were made, both on the pitch and off of it. But where Hossam Hassan gets a passing grade for the match is that he learned from said mistakes, even with the overall performance having been fine. 1) He made sure never to be caught out of substitutions in the final 10-15 minutes again. 2) He made sure his squad did not repeat its awful box defending performance the rest of the tournament. We can go over the exact adjustments made in another post.

The Australia match-up was an incredibly tricky one, and the staff knew as much. The Pharaohs are technically superior, but each of Australia's strengths coincided with Egypt's weaknesses.

The team's pace of play was more sluggish than expected, lending to worries about accumulated fatigue. There were moments in which Egypt looked to be ok settling for a penalty shootout. But they dug deep, and nearly scored a late winner, showing they can blend caution with enterprise. And perhaps most impressively of all, Egypt, who as previously mentioned showed weaknesses in the box and in the air under Hossam Hassan (and many other coaches), subdued Australia's world class aerial presence (despite the Hany own goal).

The Argentina match is still raw, and there's probably nothing I can say about it that the world hasn't already. Yes, there were some tactical and individual mistakes made (not just late), but there was also plenty of tactical and individual brilliance. Yes, we should hold onto that late lead no matter what, but there were also horrendously inconsistent officiating decisions that affected the score and the result. It's no coincidence that said irregularities (because I don't think "errors" is the right word), have drawn global ire and suspicion.

Hossam Hassan was understandably livid. And whether or not you agree with everything he said, in the midst of his post-match tirade, he also said "there were some mistakes" made by his team. That's not something he would have easily said just a year ago.

I'd be dishonest with myself if I didn't let Hassan's principled humanitarian stances factor into his final grade. Remembering the plight of Palestinians, the victims of genocide, both in celebration and whenever he was in front of a microphone, is worth more than any World Cup title IMHO. And together with brave performances on the field, it won Egypt more global fans than they've ever had before, even during the run of their 2006-2010 golden generation.

FINAL HOSSAM HASSAN WORLD CUP GRADE: A

We squeezed every bit of ability and potential out of this group. There are realities on that pitch, a squad full of domestic league players notwithstanding. The league deserves respect, and an investment in continuing its development. But it's also not the fitness and football juggernaut leagues most World Cup quarterfinal players ply their trade in.

I almost feel like I'm oppressing Hossam Hassan and his staff by not giving them an A+. But an A is damn near perfect, and if we gave them a perfect score, would we have anything to work on? For example not needlessly wasting a roster spot on a 4th GK. We can count on one hand the number of Egypt managers over the years we could hand out an A or even just a B grade to. I couldn't possibly have hoped for better from this World Cup.

I simultaneously think this staff deserves an A but also think there is absolutely nothing more they or we could have realistically done to prolong our stay. They took us as far as we could go for as much as we have control over.

There was a segment on Egyptian TV before yesterday's match asking if Hossam Hassan deserves to remain manager. Though everyone said yes, it surprised me that the question was even posed. He did the job, and we're leaving a senior FIFA tournament with more pride and dignity than ever before, so it should be a no-brainer.

The body of work at this competition supersedes that of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup (with famous matches vs. Brazil and Italy), and not just because it's the World Cup. It's because we advanced from the group, challenged for the group summit, and for the first time ever at any such tournament, did not lose on Matchday 3 (even if required a narrow offsides and a penalty kick save, they got the job done and in a match they didn't necessarily need). That is a long-standing psychological barrier not to be overlooked.

To say nothing of the impressive tactical plan, execution, and brave effort this World Cup culminated with vs. Argentina. Even if it wasn't absolutely flawless, there was nothing more that could have been done in what was an otherwise winning performance.

One more thing... if we had to be the sacrificial lamb that confirmed the world's suspicions surrounding general FIFA corruption and the relationship between FIFA, Zionism, and Argentina, so be it. We have our share of blame for the loss too, but for me the dignity Egypt left this tournament with, together with the global aftermath, is having a much greater impact than any single Egypt win. And if Egypt overcame it all and held on for the win, the world wouldn't have reacted quite like it has. Human nature has a tendency to move on more quickly when a team/person/etc. wins/overcomes despite a premeditated effort to cheat them.

What are your assessments of Hossam Hassan, especially at this World Cup? Should there be any AFCON stipulations in his contract renewal (assuming he chooses to stay), or should he be given the full 2030 cycle regardless?

[Politics Global @PolitlcsGlobal]

🚨🇦🇷 NEW: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani says that Egypt were “robbed” in yesterday’s World Cup game against Argentina

[عالم صلاح @SalahWorld11]

ديدييه دروجبا عبر الإنستغرام يُشارك مقطع من لقاء مصطفى زيكو.

[💎 @TJayyyy_1]

Just remembered how life outside of football is for Argentina fans

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

🚨🇪🇬 Egyptian Federation President Hany Abo Rida has filed an official complaint against French referee François Letexier and his assistants, reports @ismaeelmahmoudd.

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

🚨🚨 Egypt’s Ziko: “The referee is unfair, God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He's wasting the effort of an entire nation”.

“The cup is being given to Argentina. They win the World Cup”.