Egypt Grabs Soccer World’s Attention

JOHANNESBURG — The goalkeeper went to his knees in prayer. His teammates rolled on the field, shirtless and ecstatic. The coach hugged his assistants and began to cry.

Egypt had just scored its greatest soccer victory, defeating Italy, the defending world champion, by 1-0 on Thursday night in the Confederations Cup. As players poured onto the field here, thousands poured into the streets of Cairo, waving flags and honking horns in startled delirium.

No one had expected anything from Egypt at this dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup. It had won the African soccer championship six times, and was strong on the counterattack, but Egypt was considered a bit player on the world stage. Surely, it would be exposed against Brazil and Italy, which own nine World Cup titles between them.

“No Hope for Pharaohs,” blared a headline a week ago in a Confederations Cup preview in The Star newspaper here.

But no one counted on Egypt’s being such a brilliant soccer chameleon, adapting the style of its worldly opponents, playing samba offense in a narrow 4-3 loss to Brazil and door-bolt defense to become the first African team to defeat Italy.

And now Egypt is the talk of the Confederations Cup. It can advance to the semifinals of this eight-team tournament with a win Sunday against the United States and a draw or a loss by Italy against Brazil.

Coach Hassan Shehata remains beleaguered. His team arrived here having lost to Algeria and tied Zambia in the final round of World Cup qualifying. There is no guarantee that Egypt will even be here next year for what is widely considered the world’s most important sporting event.

But all of that was forgotten Thursday night. The scoreboard said, Egypt 1, Italy 0, and players rolled on the grass and Shehata hugged his assistant coaches and tears ran down his cheeks.

“He’s under so much pressure,” said Zak Abdel, an Egyptian who coaches goalkeepers for the United States national team and is a friend of Shehata’s. “The Egyptian media is very difficult. After the Brazil game, they said he was lucky. Whatever. He came back and beat Italy. It wasn’t luck.”

A former player, Shehata, 60, silver-haired and mustachioed, has coached the Egyptian national team since 2004. He is known as fair, honest and a strict disciplinarian. In the 2006 African Nations Cup, he tossed his star striker, Mido, off the team after the forward confronted him on the field after being substituted for during the semifinals.

The player sent on by Shehata then scored the winning goal, vindicating the coach. Shehata kept Mido out of the final, but allowed him to collect his victor’s medal. Tough but fair.

“He’s very organized,” Abdel said of Shehata. “Some players don’t like that. If practice is at 4 o’clock, some players wake up at one. Shehata wants you to be a professional, up at 7 for breakfast. After four or five years, the players realized they come into camp to work. Before it was vacation. You do whatever you want. Now it is work.”

Shehata played another hunch on Thursday, inserting midfielder Mohamed Homos into the lineup. Five minutes before halftime, Homos drove a header into the net for the game’s only score. Then goalkeeper Essam el Hadary, alert and aggressive and inspired, made save after save to thwart Italy, diving, sliding, sitting, anything to keep the ball from crossing his line.

It happens this way all the time, said Bob Bradley, the American coach. This is why soccer is so beautiful and cruel.

Teams come into international tournaments after long club seasons. Some players are enthused, others are tired. Their motivation can be sprightly or fatigued, their concentration frisky or exhausted. A great team can fail and an underdog can succeed.

Bradley pointed to the 2002 World Cup opener, when France, the defending champion, lost to Senegal. In the 1990 World Cup opener, Argentina, also the defending champion, lost to Cameroon. Africa is at it again in the Confederations Cup, with Egypt threatening Brazil and defeating Italy, soccer minnows swimming with whales.