Shattered dreams…………(0-2)

Shattered dreams…………(0-2)

In their last stand together croconile were forced to their first ….and last league defeat that saw them get eliminated from the UTP leagues semi-final.

In one of their most successful first halfs the croconilers were able to shutdown the leagues best offense and force them to play the unusual long ball that saw them litrally giving the ball to croconile. Despite to chances in the first half azzurri were shut out of the game and seemed traped outside the croconilers midfield.

On the other hand croconile did not benefit from their successful defense as they were unable to attack and as we all know that is only half of the equation. On counter attacks they seemed dangerous but due to the absence of star and key player haytham. With all due respect bedo played a fantastic game but the position was just not his. As he lacked the creative passing of haytham the teams key playmaker.

In the second half it was as if disaster struck as croconile received the opening goal just minutes into the half. After that it was as if the whistle will blow any second, croconlers had the spirit and they were willing to give the effort but they didn’t know in what direction.

Even after receiving another goal the players were running like crazy and giving out a great show of resistance to defeat. In this part of the article I would like to especially point out ziad el adawy, Sameh saleh, ahmed abo bakr, and Mohamed ebedo. With all due respect to others.

None the less aly khaled’s red card due to his unacceptable irrational certainly meant things were over for the day.but still the team tried their best to get back in the game.

In the second half azurri showed experience as they were able to make use of the empty spaces in croconiles midfield as they were all left upfront searching for equalizers . Overall the better team won.

But for what it’s worth 20 players in croconile gave their hearts out non showed selfishness non showed bitterness towords the others and last but not least at the end of the game they all looked to each other in respect as they knew that all of them gave their maximum effort but sometimes in life even that is not enough.

Match ratings:

Fareed fawzy: 8 a great show by the reliable fred. In the first half e made an outstanding save nad came off his line to force messi to a miss. He was perfect in the first half. In the second half didn’t have much to do and he is not to be asked on both goals.overall a good night for fred should have deserved the clean-sheet

Khourshed 7.5: again the youngster shows that he is the go to guy. He stood his ground and almost no one passed. Ming was almost always left outside and with the help of aly this side was closed shut form most of the game.

Bakr 7.5 : a good game for the skipper although he seemed lost in the first goal. But he made up by saving a third gal from messi. He was cooler than most games and showed class. He made zero mistakes and was there to cover the newly positioned ayoub

ayoub 8: despite giving a good game but ayoub missed playing in midfield it really showed in his playing.but regarding his CB role he was on p of his game but he did mess up in one ball that almost saw messi score the opener in the first half.other then that he covered behind ziad and formed a good tag-team with the experienced bakr. maybe not the best but a good form to end the season.

Ziad 8 : spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit. I don’t know if it was the ahmed fathy award or if it was him but the spirit that ziad showed today showed the leader inside of him , never giving up never showing frustration and always on top of his game.

Football-wise ziad seemed to be a weak link for a couple of balls in the first half but he was covered successfully by ayoub he couldn’t surge upfront as much as usual but that was because the strong left wing of azzuri. But overall in the game ziad was very influential and he deffinetly deserved more out of the game.

Aly: is sorry that he took the red card.

Alaa 7.5 : finally Alaa found hiself but after ll has been lost!!! He played a good game he was there, focused, and showed the alla we miss he made a tremendous effort in the first half and he successfully helped his defenders to shut dow the offense from the left. Good game chester!!!

Bedo 8.5 : spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit

He was upfront helped in the back and almost in every play bedo was really on steroids that day!!! His passing accuracy was very high and he showed a fast pace although he didn’t have the creative passing quality needed in the AMF but he was definitely a good replacement for haytham and he deffinetly accomplished what was requested by the coach.

Hassan mady 8.5: a hidden gem!! Hassan made us shout at the coach where the heck was that guy from the beginning of the season!!!he was very energetic and caused a lot of trubles to the defence. Played several 1-2 s with aly and crossed more than one ball. His passing was almost perfect and he didn’t keep the ball for too long. I KNOW!!!! what a perfect game!!!!! Hassan thanked the coach……MADY style!!! He signed on him.

Islam rasheedy:6.5 seemed affected by his injury was a bit too slow but in his defense he rarely got the ball due to the defensive playing by his team. But when he did get a chance to shoot islam backed down. But I guess now is not the time to ask what if!!

Sameh 8.5: spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit spirit

Sameh was almost perfect today not only did he outplay the best left back on campus but he also outplayed his center-back. Too bad he didn’t score today even a compensation goal. It would hav been really memorable. Sorry to speak this way but I really feel that sameh deserved a goal today. He worked really hard and improved a lot. Despite our differences but sameh today you were excellent. I would like to thank amr for making sameh the player he was on that pitch. A great player to play WITH.

Migo 7.5 a good game by the migo machine was fit and focused and no one passed his side! He gave ayoub the oopurtunity to go in midfield andhelp upfront. A great addition to the pitch.

Zizo: 6 not a good show by the youngeser he was slow and kept the ball for too much. He must improve a lot to be fit for the big pitch

Islam adel: 7 didn’t play much and came on late in the game. It was a lost case by then as azzurri really closed it in the back. He was a it slow though but definitely showed spirit and exerted obvious efforts.

Belal:7 I believe he will be a great player in coming seasons

Amr MAGD: for amr I will break down the rating to two

FIRST HALF: 8.5 defensively amr deserves a perfect 10 and if there is a higher rating then 10 I would give it to him. The team was a perfect tactic display on how to stop a fast passing team and force them to play long balls that are collected easily by your defense every man in the team knew exactly what to do and did it perfectly as the coach had taught them. A remark n the defense though is that it should have been a press from as soon as the other team enters your midfield not from the third of the pitch to be able to cut them down earlier and not allow the defense to participate easily in offense. Other than that a perfect team display lead by their coach.

But football is not only about defense. An offensive play should have been prepared for one that does not depend on your late rigt back. More freedom should have been given to the defensive midfielders to help bedo upfront. But in the absence of your star midfielder I think you had your reasons. (offence is why you didn’t take the full 10)

SECOND HALF 7: frankly I don’t know why you would mess up with a team performing perfectly especially if the other team was on the verge of losing hope. In the beginning of the second half croconlers played a full press game against the fastest team in the league this lead to spaces in the back that saw ahmed run through the wing and get a foul that led to disaster (first goal). Ofcourse amr is not to be asked about the goal or about the foul but from my point of view he should hav left the team to play as they were in the first half and then at the end of the game they he could have used his teams high fitness in the full press formation by then the azzuri could have lost concentration and fatigue would have caught up with them.

Of course all this is theoretical and you can never control the game 100 %.

Other then that amr didn’t have an offensive plan to exploit azzuri’s deffence and he couldn’t turn the gam around I think this is due to his lack of experience and I am quite sure I would have been left bedazzeled by the first goal maybe even more than him. But as a commentator I felt that croconile had it all figured out in defense but after that……….

P.S before the game I gave the team a speech about how this game can wither be your glory or your…… regret.

Sadly but (alhamdulellah) it has become part of my regret and till the moment that I am writing these lines I am still getting flashback and picturing myself doing passes differently and exerting more effort. I still see fauzo scoring his first goal and ahmed celebrating his second.i still remember how helpless I felt on the pitch and how disappointed of myself I felt after being kicked out!!But I guess that’s life you must have to man up and push through.

Egyptians have a bad habit of searching for false reasons to blame . that’s why you find after football games Egypt looses that the referee secretly met the president of the other country or you find signs in Egypt after algeria’s match saying and I quote “it’s not important to get to the world cup…its important how we look infront of the world” even away from football Egyptians tend to feel outcaste by Europeans or picked upon by natives in a foreign country ( personal point of view).

As I sat down after the game searching for my reason to blame. I couldn’t find any…. The referee was more than fare my team mates played their best football ….. they trained well showed spirit, never gave up on the game and went head to head with literally the universities all star team. We showed class played good football and showed good sportsmanship (expect me).

Our coach was more than good to us he showed dedication like never before he had a vision he had a good plan and he believed in each one of us he never took this team as an extracurricular activity he lived for it.. So did all of us.

In the end I realized that there doesn’t have to be a reason to blame sometimes you give your best and you put your maximum efforts into something. I mean maximum time, effort, thinking, blood, nerves……..Everything and you just fall short.

After that you may get another shot or you may not……but I think the most important thing is at the end of the day when your all alone and between you and yourself you feel absolutely satisfied by yourself knowing that you gave your everything you will feel a comforting feeling That will make you go through the loss.

Sadly I didn’t get that comforting feeling……