Im not a footbal fan nor taking comfort in the horrefic defeat of our national team at the hands of Ghanans but just intrigued and facinated by the chorus of columninsts who are lined up in a parade of articles across the Americal press to give a show of strength and unity behind one of their fellow citezens, Mr Bradley the team coach; where in contrast you see sissys lead fachiest regime is killing his own people live on TV (&the press) in a disgusting show of disgrace and humility to the Egyptian nation.... He is the American who took on the task of restoring Egypt as a soccer power in Africa and as a World Cup finals participant for the third time in its history. The Quiet American — some call him the American Pharaoh — Bradley arrived in Cairo on Oct. 15, 2011, a few months before the revolution began on the streets there. He stayed, committed to the assignment, to the players, to the cause. He stayed on through a massacre of 74 fans after a game in Port Said the following year. He still stays, despite the removal of the sports officials who hired him, the sectarian divisions among national team players and the shutdown of league in Egypt these past two years. Bradley’s wife, Lindsay, also stays and also is involved in a humanitarian way that neither of them could have bargained for the day that Bob signed up for the challenge abroad. Egypt’s turmoil is not his or her battle. But they are drawn into it by something that goes beyond anything that the former Princeton University, and U.S. men’s team coach might ever have envisioned. Walking openly with the marchers in Cairo’s squares, or working in imposed secrecy with players behind closed, military-guarded doors, his task was to unite the team in a broken country. In some ways, the turmoil around them, and the seclusion imposed upon them, became its own gelling agent. Half a century ago, Brazil, the best of all soccer nations, used to take its national squad up a mountain above Rio de Janeiro. There in Teresópolis they were encamped in a beautiful retreat that cut them off for months on end from all intrusions, all temptations down below. Bob Bradley’s Pharaohs had that imposed upon them. But this American coach, so often accused by the media of being too taciturn and too silent while in charge of Team USA, had to work in a language he scarcely knew, with players who would not be quiet about which side of the religious and political divide they stood. Somehow, Bradley’s Egypt team went through its African group phase of World Cup qualification with a perfect six wins out of six games. On Tuesday, the team was in Ghana for the first leg of a playoff, home and away, that will decide whether Ghana or Egypt reaches the 32-nation tournament finals in Brazil next year. Ghana was the outstanding African side at the last World Cup in 2010. And it was there that Ghana ousted the United States — then Bradley’s team — winning, 2-1, after extra time in the second round. Egypt, Bradley said succinctly on the eve of Tuesday’s game, had unfinished business with Ghana. And he has an ongoing issue with Ghana, too. To this day, Bradley is not noted for his oratory. The Egyptians have taken to him, trust him, and feel that Bob and Lindsay Bradley are a part of their national striving. It is not simply that they stay while he fulfills the contract, it is the emotional ties that the Bradleys exhibit by being there, being involved, at times almost furtively visiting victims of the violence in hospitals and donating to beleaguered families while shunning publicity for doing so. Few people have put it better, or more simply, than James M. Dorsey, a former foreign correspondent in the Middle East and now a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “Egypt,” Dorsey said, “is a region where emotions count. If you respond to situations with a sense that you understand what is going on, and you empathize and you are part of this, people value that.” The writings of Dorsey helped Bradley try to comprehend the situation he signed up for when, as an out-of-work soccer coach, he accepted the Egyptian challenge. Bradley possibly wouldn’t say it, because past loyalties obviously also count to him, but he has inherited players in Egypt who might be technically superior and intellectually more challenging than any in his previous posts. One of those would surely be Mohamed Aboutrika. Aboutrika, or simply Trika, as Bradley refers to him, played in his 100th match and scored his 37th goal for Egypt a month ago. He was a player of Al-Ahly, the team whose supporters were massacred in Port Said, and Aboutrika not only took to the streets in support of the those killed, he announced after that night that he was quitting soccer as a player. Somewhere along the line, Egypt’s cause, Bradley’s persuasion, the fact that the players had their own internal brotherhood, took the now 34-year-old playmaker and striker back to the national team. Of all Bradley’s work in Cairo, and in the foreign places where he had managed to concentrate his team and unite them in his way of playing, the reintegration of Aboutrika will one day make an incredible, almost implausible, story. Aboutrika is a follower of the Prophet Muhammad, but a student of the philosophy of life. He holds a degree in philosophy and is involved in humanitarian work, especially with children. He also donated to the building of a mosque in Ghana, where he was due to play Tuesday. “Every athlete,” Aboutrika said last month, “has a humanitarian role in society. He doesn’t live solely for himself, but for others, too.” Sadly for Egypt and for Bradley, although Aboutrika scored a penalty kick in Kumasi on Tuesay evening, the fitter, faster, younger Ghanaians romped to a 6-1 victory that makes the return leg almost redundant, wherever it is played. The end of a road for the American and his World Cup mission in Africa);
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 15:23:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015