shehata is a new addition and this is a mostly young team (and the only decent team egypt had in my short life).

ya3ni hopefully they'll manage to qualify this time.

Why the sour grapes, Frederik? Let them have their day in the sun.

Ash Shakkak, I'm just hoping for more, after two African championships in a row! I think this team, with its good organization, could do fairly well during a world cup.

I wrote off their last championship to home-field advantage, but they impressed the heck out of me this time around. You have to understand, there is some real talent in the teams south of the Sahara. I watched Ghana play in the World Cup and thought they had a midfield as dynamic and good as anyone's with Muntari, Essien, etc. Ivory Coast is also a truly impressive team with some real world-class talent.

By contrast, I do not think Egypt has a single truly world class player along the lines of a Drogba or Essien or Eto'o. I think Egypt's success can be partly attributed, instead, to the success of the domestic league in Egypt. There is a solid cadre of locally-based players from which Shehata can draw and also a small group of really impressive play-makers abroad. (Zidan comes to mind first and foremost.) Unless you're Brazil (or France, which instead has a very good national training center), having a solid domestic league is really important in developing teams capable of winning tournaments.

I cannot imagine Egypt will not qualify for the World Cup this time around. They have a genuine "Golden Generation," and unlike the golden generations of England and Portugal of late, the Egyptians have actually won something.

Credit to the victors.