The Hand of God!

No it's not the Maradona goal vs England in 1986. It's worse (well not really). It's the Michael Eneramo goal against Ahly in the first minute of the second leg of the African Champions League Semi- Final. It was a blatant hand ball. The referee Mr. Lamptey had to be blind to have missed it.

Don't believe me check it out....

There is no doubt in my mind that the referee was one of the worst I have ever seen in a football game. He allowed a clear hand ball to stand, gave too few yellow cards to Esperance (Taragy) players compared to Ahly and allowed the game to be played with just 1 ball. Ahly players were scrambling for the ball all the time, but the there were no extra balls and the ball boys never tried to get the balls back onto the pitch. Taragy players continued to fall to ground in every occasion and to top it off the referee gave 3 minutes of added time in the first half and 5 in the second. The referee lost control of the game after allowing the hand ball to stand. Let's be clear though, at the end of the day we lost the game and the referee did not make us lose it....

Yes the referee had a role but lets take a look how the players applied themselves in the game. A team with Ahly's experience should not lose control like they did after conceding just one goal very early on. The players went mad with rage and frankly almost every single foul the referee called against Ahly was correct and every single yellow card was deserved and don't pretend you are blind...Barakat had to go. The red card was a must, raising your hand against your opponent and smacking him on the face (I don't care if it is a touch or a punch..this is not MMA!!!) is a sending off offense. Yes the Esperance player made a meal out of it, but a lot of players do that. The mad men of Ahly were undone by their own in ability to control themselves. Control and discipline stems from the coach first and the players second.

Never have I seen an Ahly team lack that much of sportsmanship , rude, aggressive and frankly not for the first time. It happened in the league and against the Algerian team. Sadly they reminded me of Zamalek...enough said! It is not the first time we have played against a team and a referee. This is common in Africa so lets not be naive about it and pretend that we are heroes and that the referee robbed us of our dream. Have Egypt and Ahly fans lost their memories? Do none of you remember that Ahly scored a hand ball goal in Cairo? Take a look at how the Tunisian team carried themselves after the goal. They aggressively voiced their concern about the goal, however no one was red carded and they continued to play their brand of football even after conceding a second goal, until they managed a priceless away goal! This is how Ahly should have responded, sadly Badry had turned us into grunts! I recall us playing in the African Cup with Manuel Jose against Enyemba in Nigeria. The referee and linesman failed to flag the forward of the Nigerian team, although he was 5 yards offside throughout the game. My friends and I even called him " Mr. Offsido". How did we respond? we played ball and beat them 1-0. Do you remember losing the Champions league in Cairo 1-3 against Etoile de Sahel (El Negm al Sa7elly). We had 2 legitimate claims of penalties denied and Emad El Nahass was red carded. Did we turn violent? Lose our cool? Attack other players and the referee? No we took it like men and played football.....Barakat would not have dared attempt such a prank then and he should be ashamed of himself! As for Hossam Ashour it seems he has lost his mind and is lucky he was not red carded, twice or possibly arrested for assault:P

Refereeing mistakes and bad tempers aside, did we deserve to win? In my opinion we did not! We had 90minutes to score a goal that would have been enough to push us through but we failed to create anything. Yes going down to 10 men made it difficult but we were playing an average team in my opinion who did not even press on for a second goal against a broken and impotent Ahly team. We managed 2 shots for the whole of the 90minutes. 2 shots can you believe it? One of which was a free kick!!! We managed just 2 crosses from open play, yet we blame the referee for the loss. How the mighty have fallen. How do you expect the team to win with a coach that will not address his short comings? Hossam El Badry had the audacity to comment that the result of the game was predetermined. Couldn't el Taragy say the same thing regarding the Cairo game? Instead of focusing on creating chances and playing football he focused his energy on anger towards the referee. Our only game plan was long balls from the keeper towards Geddo, who is not a target man by trade (although I think he applied himself brilliantly and was our best player on the pitch) and one legged Moody Fadl who is a target man by trade but has the strength of an 80 year old grandmother. When we needed a goal we got on a defensive midfielder in Shehab, I was expecting Shawky frankly LOL! Why not an attacking player like Shoukry? I used to think Badry is useless but frankly I think he is more out of his depth than anything else. The pressure that comes with managing a club with the pedigree of Ahly is too much for him (Zamalek might suite him:P). We need someone else.

Finally were was Abou Trieka in all of this? He was no were to be seen. He was not involved in any argument or in the game itself. He looks to me like a man disheartened by how his club is applying itself! Allah yemaseek bel khier ya Manuel ya Jose (May good things come to you Jose) and R.I.P nady el 2khla2 wa 2al mabde2 (R.I.P Club of virtues of sound manners)