Egypt national soccer team coach Bob Bradley, from the U.S. (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt's national football team will play friendly matches against heavyweights Cameroon, Togo and Senegal in their coming training camp in Morocco, which starts on 15 May, the Pharaohs' assistant coach Diaa El-Sayed announced on Monday.
The Moroccan camp will be the last for the Egyptians ahead of a busy schedule in June, when the team will kick off their African Cup of Nations (CAN) 2013 and World Cup 2014 qualifying campaigns.
El-Sayed announced recently the agreement to play with Togo and Cameroon, hinting that there were also talks with Ivory Coast; but he confirmed today that the third friendly will be with Senegal.
“We will start the camp with a friendly against Cameroon on 18 May; the second friendly will be with Togo on 22 May; and finally we will play Senegal two days later,” the assistant coach was quoted as saying by Ahram Sport on Monday.
Egypt coach Bob Bradley wants to play a large number of friendlies before the qualifiers to get the players physically and technically fit, as all domestic football has been suspended since after the Port Said disaster on 1 February.
The American coach, who has been in charge since November 2011, is trying to reshuffle the ageing squad, which won a record three-straight CAN titles in 2006, 2008 and 2010 under the helm of Hassan Shehata.
The Pharaohs, who defeated Libya 4-0 today in a friendly at the current training camp in Cairo, have been paired with Guinea, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in the World Cup qualifiers.
Egypt will kick off their campaign against Mozambique on 1 June, before travelling to Guinea a week later. They will take on the Central African Republic in a two-legged tie in the CAN 2013 qualifiers on 17 and 30 June.
(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter: @AO Sports)
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