``The National Team`` and They Do Not Sorrow
Mohamed Abdul Majed
I intended to criticize the situation in which the national team was received. The professionals recently included by the Sudanese Football Association and the coaching staff, and the buzz that accompanied it - websites, satellite channels, pages, and groups on social media were all following with excitement and exaggeration. Reports and pleas about their arrival and departure moments, obtaining travel documents in Cairo, and returning afterward were circulating, with everyone delighted to get the official documentation, join the national team, and FIFAs approval of these steps.
I was planning to write about the live updates, images, and news published about their joining the national team. I began to criticize this behavior and appearance, but I refrained from doing so. Since we do this with clubs and foreign professional players, it is better to do it with the national team and Sudanese professionals abroad, for the sake of the country and not just the clubs. However, carrying out these steps with clubs does not legitimize them or give us the right to do the same with the national team with the same fanfare, especially since we suffer from it with both the clubs and the national team, and rationality with national teams is always higher than with clubs.
It would have been more effective if these steps had been taken and this joining had occurred quietly or secretly, rather than leaving it for the media platforms to cover as they pleased. If the Sudanese Football Association had accomplished this achievement in secret, its fruits would have been greater, and we would have benefited in a more straightforward manner.
Nevertheless, we cannot underestimate the positivity of these steps, and the efforts made by the Football Association are commendable. Perhaps the greatest positive aspect of these additions is the strong national sentiment awakened in everyone and the great interest the national team has found among the Sudanese people and football fans after the professionals joined the team, as the Sudanese national team was previously almost forgotten.
What the Football Association can be blamed for is that these steps were taken recently, and the joining happened less than 48 hours before the national teams match against Togo. It was natural that there would be no noticeable technical impact in that match. We hope to reap the benefits in the upcoming matches, and we ask Allah Almighty to make that available from the next match for the national team, even though it seems challenging.
What I want to criticize about the national teams coaching staff is their inclusion of six players from Al-Merrikh, whose players have been on vacation for more than three months. Although the national team coaching staff justifies this step by the presence of the players in the national teams camp for over a month, especially since the head coach of the national team included a professional who joined the camp 72 hours before the match, this is another mistake made by the national team coaching staff, led by Kwasi Appiah. It would have been better for the player and the team not to participate in the match, limiting the participation to local players.
It is not justified that the national team coaching staff included only three players from Al-Hilal, the only club actively participating externally. The team remained in a closed camp for over four months, during which Al-Hilal played strong matches in Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. A player like Walid Al-Din Khojali, who was the best player in the national team, alongside Krshoum, Al-Ghirbal, and Roufa in the Africa Cup of Nations, we do not know why he was excluded from the national team, which included Mohammed Al-Rasheed and others that no one knows.
Pogba is the scorer of Sudans only goal in the recent Africa Cup of Nations, and he has been punished by being excluded from the national team due to this goal. Moreover, the participation of Abdul Raouf and Yasser Muzamil would have been more appropriate and beneficial than the participation of others who were not fully prepared to participate. Even the inclusion of Mohammed Mustafa as a goalkeeper instead of Abu Ashreen is strange. The national team has paid the price for the participation of this goalkeeper in goals scored against him even in friendly matches against Chad.
Currently, Al-Hilal is the most prepared, and its players have reached a good level technically, physically, and mentally. They are the best in the field, and it would be better for the national team to include at least eight players from Al-Hilal, especially since it was natural to do so even under normal circumstances. How could it not happen when Al-Hilal is the only team actively participating for over four months?
One might argue that the large number of professionals in Al-Hilal diminishes the chances of a national player playing for the national team if he plays for Al-Hilal. However, this is not true because national players in Al-Hilal have retained their opportunities to play amid competition with foreign players. This fact is confirmed by Walid Al-Din Khidir Boga, who has maintained his position in Al-Hilal despite the competition with foreign players. The same applies to Abu Ashreen, Tayeb Abdelrazek, Yasser Muzamil, and even Rofa, who consistently plays with Al-Hilal and is the first fan favorite.
Foreign players in Al-Hilal have raised the level of national players due to competition and the dominance of professionalism in Al-Hilal, which has become their official language. The participation of unprepared elements with the national team has not only cost the national team but also the players themselves. Ramadan Ajabs injury is believed to be a result of his physical unreadiness for the match.
Therefore, Al-Merrikh played with more than eight professionals in the last season when Al-Merrikh appeared and their slots are now empty and will be occupied by foreigners at the first opportunity. Therefore, the percentage of nationals in Al-Hilal is the same as in Al-Merrikh, at least the national elements in Al-Hilal play with Al-Hilal, while those in Al-Merrikh have been distributed between Atbara and Port Sudan, even without training.
If at least seven elements from Al-Hilal do not participate in the upcoming national team match, starting from Abu Ashreen to the end with Yasser Muzamil, the national team will not achieve a positive result. This is because Al-Hilals elements are the most prepared, both in terms of match fitness and competition form that the players of Al-Merrikh have lost even at the local competition level. If the Football Association wants to genuinely serve the national team, it should expedite the return of local competition and the Premier League because local competition is the best preparation for the national team. In these circumstances, the country urgently needs the return of local competition, not only clubs and the national team, but the players alone are in need of the return of sports activity. The Sudanese people as a whole are eagerly awaiting this.
In this war and those circumstances, the role of sports must be evident, and competitions must return, especially since schools and universities in many states have opened their doors.
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Matareis (Barricade)
I wanted to write about Sayed Abdel Hafeez, the former football director of Al-Ahly, who wanted to return to Al-Ahly by attacking Sundowns. But I didnt find any (material). According to his limited intelligence, Sayed Abdel Hafeez objected to the celebration of the Sundowns coach for his teams victory over Al-Ahly with a goal without a response.
Sayed Abdel Hafeez added to that, saying that the African Union designed and organized this championship for Sundowns to win it, even though Sundowns almost withdrew from this championship.
If Abdel Hafeez sees that the African Union is fighting Al-Ahly, what do Al-Hilal fans say, who were deprived of participating in a championship in which a team exited from the preliminaries in the African Champions League? The championship in which Al-Hilal reached the group stage for the fifth consecutive time. Al-Hilal continued in the previous seasons to be deprived of its fans and play without them, while playing in Omdurman.
Sayed Abdel Hafeez spoke about the support of referees and the African Union for Sundowns, considering their victory over Al-Ahly with a goal without a response in South Africa an undeserved victory. This is despite the fact that Al-Ahly lost by five twice to Sundowns in South Africa in the presence of Sayed Abdel Hafeez.
With Sayed Abdel Hafeez, Al-Ahly failed for two seasons to achieve victory over Sundowns, even while playing in Cairo. Last season, Al-Ahly scored the equalizer in Cairo from a clear offside, and the Ethiopian referee denied Sundowns a penalty.
If Abdel Hafeez wants to return to Al-Ahly again, he must know that his return will not be through attacking Sundowns. Sundowns is the best team on the African continent, not only in this season but for the past two seasons.
Abdel Hafeez objected to Sundowns time-wasting in the final match, and this is the method that achieves championships for Al-Ahly and North African clubs. The matter is difficult for you now. You are masters at wasting time.
We will return and write about special messages to Al-Hilal before the match against Petro Atlético. That match in which Al-Hilal must win if it wants to qualify from the group stage.
Anas Mohammed Ahmed and colleagues in the media office of Al-Hilal, Mohammed Dafallah and Mohamed Ismail, are doing great work, reflecting every detail about Al-Hilal in its African journey. The likelihood, indeed the certainty, is that Al-Hilal has reconsidered, and the Hilal council dealt with the matter in the manner of Jonathan Ivaso, who has not been announced by Al-Hilal until now. The matter is finished.
The return of the Premier League on January 15, we hope it is real, and the Union must announce it officially so that the clubs can prepare and organize their affairs well before the start of the competition. The leakage of all the news of the General Union through "leaks" is inappropriate for the Sudanese Football Association, which founded the African Union.
The media coordinator at Al-Hilal, Anas Mohammed Ahmed, managed to control leaks in Al-Hilal despite the fact that Al-Hilal is an open and vast space. We also respect the secrecy followed by Al-Aliqi and Abdulmohaimen Al-Amin. The technical analyst for Al-Hilal, Asaad Al-Tahir, should not be overlooked by Al-Hilal, and his great capabilities should be utilized. The director of football at Al-Hilal, Abdulmohaimen Al-Amin, is far from the media, doing great work, and is one of the main reasons for the success of Al-Hilals external camps.
Good luck to the national team and Al-Hilal in the upcoming rounds.
