Egypt are the African Champions

Yesterday, I skipped a lecture at university, headed straight home to throw away my suit and wear the "gahwa" uniform, I have a match to catch.
I reached the gahwa, seats were filling up quick and becoming rather rare. 3 friends came and joined me. Egypt was playing Cameroon for the title of "the African Champion".
90 nail biting minutes. The Egyptians again played like men. They played like it personally mattered to them, like it is a matter of pride and honour, like a plague of unholy death was to befall them should they lose.
These men fought, and might I add, with a sporting spirit.
Mr. Hubail, Mr. Salmeen, I hope you saw that match yesterday. I really do. Call up the rest of the team mates, do you have their phone numbers? Well call them up and make sure they saw that. y'know, just to have an idea what fighting for one's country is like, if you'd ever be interested in something like that.
Egypt had a solid defense line, a strong middle and dangerous attackers. Alhadari was an amazing goal keeper as well, saving the Egyptians numerous times.
Their strategy was sound and well implemented. That was a performance I can hardly fault.
Congratulations Egypt. Unlike others that come to mind, you are making arabs proud. Thank you.

Egyptian Attitude, making me proud to be an Arab again.

Once upon a time, I used to write a sports column in a local newspaper, then I used to post in my blog about Bahraini sports. The column was dropped and the posts got less frequent. The sporting situation in Bahrain is so pathetically useless that it was mentally and emotionally straining to write about.
And then I watched the Egypt Vs. The Ivory Coast match (CAF Africa Cup of Nations). The Egyptians won 4-1 in a fierce and competitive battle.
The Egyptians fought hard, stuck to the plan and passed pin point passes. But no amount of technical strategy or fitness can equal a variable called "HEART". Yes, the Egyptians played with heart. With courage. Made themselves proud, and made me proud to be an Arab.
Not so with our "National" team, unfortunately.
I see my team, the one bearing MY flag, walk around the pitch instead of running, heads down. Like they are waiting for something to happen.
MY team is satisfied with simply passing in the general direction of a team mate, if it so happens to land dead centre between the legs of the opposing team player, so be it.
Where is the fire? Where is the spark? Where is the passion that I saw in '04?
As an HR professional, morale is very high on my list. No one can perform with a bad attitude, and the problem is that bad attitude is very contagious.
Bahrain won over Oman recently 1:0 in it's Asian World Cup qualifiers. I am glad we won, upset we sucked.
I am fed up of the whiny, overconfident, unresponsive and fragile players. kick them all out for all I care. The only people who should be in the national team are ones who beg to be in it, who want it. I don't care if I lose so long as I feel and see my team give out their all. Bored players are no good for me.
Thank god for Egypt for keeping my Arabic sports pride from dying.