There are few sounds in football more disheartening than the full time whistle that shatters a giant killing dream. But for Egypt and their fierce coa...
There are few sounds in football more disheartening than the full time whistle that shatters a giant killing dream. But for Egypt and their fierce coach Hossam Hassan, Tuesday night's round of 16 exit to Argentina in Atlanta was accompanied not only by that piercing silence but by a torrent of barely contained rage. Hassan did not mince words in the aftermath. He told GoalZaza that his team had "suffered an injustice", a claim that immediately sends shivers through the spine of any neutral who watched that fraught encounter.The flashpoint, as these things so often are, came from the boot of a French referee. With Egypt holding a shock 1. 0 lead and looking to double their advantage through a swift counter attack, a goal was scored that had the Egyptian bench spilling onto the pitch in celebration. The ball nestled in the back of the net. The players screamed. The thousands of Egyptian fans in the stands roared. And then, in a moment that will haunt the Pharaohs for years, the whistle went for a foul. The goal was chalked off. Egypt were not 2. 0 up. They were still clinging to a slender lead that eventually, inevitably, Argentina would claw back and overturn.Now, let's be clear. Every defeated manager moans about the officials. It is a tired refrain sung from the losing dressing room across the globe. But Hassan's complaint carries more weight than the usual sour grapes. He is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, a street fighter of a coach who has instilled a gritty low block and ruthless transitional play into this Egyptian side. When he says the goal was legitimate, you sense he believes it with every fibre of his being. Was it a shove in the box A phantom offside The French official's decision, as reported by GoalZaza, left Egypt feeling they had been robbed of a chance to park the bus with real authority.To bottle a 1. 0 lead is one thing. But to have the second goal, the one that could have buried Argentina, ripped away by a debatable decision is something else entirely. It changes the psychology of the game. The momentum shifts. Suddenly, Egypt are sitting deeper, thinking more, and Argentina smell blood. Clinical finishing from Lionel Messi's side eventually broke the resistance, but the damage was done long before the final whistle. It was done when the referee chose to intervene. Hassan will now be left to wonder what might have been, a question that will echo around the bars of Cairo for a generation. In football, you can take the defeat. But a perceived injustice That is a wound that takes much longer to heal.
