Shehata praises Uganda and Nile Basin, eyes 2014 World Cup

Eslam Omar, Tuesday 18 Jan 2011

After winning the first Nile Basin tournament, Egypt's coach looks ahead to the Pharaoh’s future

Egypt
Egypt football team celebrates first Nile Basin title

Egyptian tactician Hassan Shehata revealed that he is satisfied with the newly-introduced Nile Basin competition, highlighting its benefits to the Egyptian team.

“The tournament accomplished all its targets. We used it to test the new players under the championship’s pressure,” Shehata told television.

The 61-year old coach praised the Ugandan team and their tactics after the 3-1 victory for Egypt in the final.

“Honestly, I respect the Ugandan team. Their coach is aware of his team’s attacking abilities,” Shehata said. “But he knows that he can’t play an open game against Africa's champions so he concentrated on defence to draw, targeting penalty kicks,”

Shehata praised the new players who joined the team in the tournament especially while some experienced Pharaohs like Amr Zaki, Ahmed Hassan, Said Moawad and Emad Metaab are recovering from injuries.

“The best benefit of the tournament is that we we discovered players like Amr El-Soulaia, Ibrahim Salah, Sayed Hamdy, Mohamed Nagib and the booming Ahmed Belal and Samir Farrag,”

The Pharaohs are languishing at the bottom of Group G of the 2012 African Cup of Nations (ACN) qualifiers with a single point from a possible six. They face South Africa in March.

The three-times winning coach, Shehata confirmed that Zamalek star Mahmoud Abdel-Razik “Shikabala” is a useful addition to the squad and that all his problems with the coaching staff solved. He also asserted that the door is still open for former Ajax Amsterdam striker Ahmed Hossam “Mido”.

The Egyptian legend also announced that he is optimistic after recently being named the 14th best coach in the world, revealing that it’s his lucky number.

“I was named the 14th best coach. I used to wear the number 14 jersey when I was a player. I dream of reaching the 2014 World Cup.”

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