The Beautiful Game

In Egypt Soccer is not just a game it is what is left for the people to hold on to in their country.
The Egyptians have lost all they had and the one thing they hold on to with their clinging nails is soccer.

It is the one thing they can still hold on to. Their trapped frustrations and silence about all that is corrupt and was once magnificent is transformed into a passion for soccer that seems more like a revolting angry force than an interest in a sport.

The people are looking for a reason to storm the streets and scream, a reason that is not political of course. The people's only legitimate scream is for the game. Their only spoken hope is for winning it. And today hopes are high streets are filled with drums and men dressed in red filled with anger towards the Algerians rather than cheers for their team.

I live next to the embassy of Algeria and the Algerians came and stood in front of their embassy in green and wearing the rage of wars not games. They cursed the Egyptians in French and unfortunately the students of the French schools around the embassy of Algeria understood so fights broke out, bottles were thrown and people got hurt.

WHY DO THE PEOPLE HAVE TO TURN EVERY BEAUTIFUL THING INTO A HATE CRIME?


Danger can be sensed in my street, police officers are everywhere and things are electrified.


What was meant to be a game, a sport, has become a national struggle and anger fills the red and the green teams. It has become the quest of the nation.

We Egyptians are like that- hysterical in all that we do. Hysterical about the swine flu! Hysterical about soccer, hysterical about any new topic and extremely emotional to boot. We like to stretch a subject and suck life out of it leaving it worn out. We exhaust ourselves with topics until new ones rise. If something new is going on every group will wear it out and every mouth will dry from over discussing it.

It is obviously sick how they are behaving and it is a way that they chose to transfer their frustrations.

I really hope that Egypt wins tomorrow and I even have the spirit to paint my whole body in the colors of my flag but I worry that if I go to the stadium I might not come back.

I pray that Egypt wins and my heart goes out to the team that carries the burden of a corrupt government and the duty to please people who have been disappointed for years. It is as if their victory will solve everything and suddenly the education will be better and the hospitals will have the means to cure the sick. As if the poor will have food if we win. As if freedom will spread her wings high if we win. As if we will be great again if our athletes win.

If the players win, we will feel their pride as if it was a result of our own feet on the court not theirs. We feel pride that only Roman gods should have. However, if they lose they might get beaten and cursed and disrespected like traitors to their land. As if the rules of any game did not include the possibility of winning or losing.

These players carry burdens that no man can bare for they are the only thing that keeps this country united and they are the only ones who make the people proud, the only thread of hope is them, God bless them, and may they succeed in making the millions jump with happiness, and if they fail please God protect them.

The Game is meant to end with a loser and a winner if you cannot take the fact that your team might lose then hide away and do not stay to watch the game tomorrow.

The fans must calm down tomorrow may there be no sorrow tomorrow. I truly deeply hope my Egyptian team wins tomorrow and that dreams and hearts do not shatter!