Coaching Headache Averted

One silver lining in Egypt bowing out of the tournament at the first knockout stage is that there wont be, well at least there shouldn’t be, any talk from the masses about how Hany Ramzy should replace Bob Bradley as the Senior Team Manager. Whether we like to admit it or not, there is certainly a hint of prejudice towards our senior coach due to his nationality. Many fans and members of the media would jump at any chance to call for his head and have him replaced by “Captain” Ramzy or any other pretender.

This is despite the fact that Bradley completely schooled the Egyptian national team in the 2009 confederations cup, 3-0, en route to a final loss against Brazil. Ramzy has been the coach of the U23 team for 2 years now. That is, he is the coach of an age group that doesn’t actually matter to FIFA, since after the World Cup (no age restriction), the next age category is under 20. Where is the continuity in having a coach for our U20 team, an “Olympic team” coach, and a senior coach?

Mano Menezes has been the Brazil U23 coach for about a month now. He is also the manager of the senior side and has been so for the last 2 years. Brazil didn’t just go into this tournament with the intention of winning; they went into it with the idea that these players will make up the bulk of their squad when they host the World Cup, and have a chance to prove their worth. And so, who better to see who would fit and work well in the system of the team, than the person who will actually coach them when they are there. Even the coach of Mexico, the other finalist, is the Assistant Manager of the senior Mexico side. There is a line of continuity that is logical in its understanding and practical in its approach.

We gave the job to Ramzy out of sentiment, because he was a great player in the national team and for a time was our captain. He was outclassed in our last game against Japan, failing to learn any mistakes from the group stage, and only managed a win against a Belarus team making their debut in Olympic football. He could not even register a win against a New Zealand team that had to beat the likes of Fiji and Vanuatu in order to make it to the tournament proper – though that was mainly the blame of some terrible finishing by our senior players.