Ich bin Egyptian!!

As I drove to work yesterday morning, cutting through the woodsmoke like anti-Ahmadinejad slogans at dusk in Tehran, I heard numerous cries of "Ich bin Egyptian!".  What a pleasure it was to see Egypt resolve some of our overhanging angst from that game against Italy in the 2006 World Cup .  

In the last few minutes of the game I am sure I saw one player whisper to another "Let's do it for Lucas!" Internationalism is a feature of players of the world game - but I was somewhat surprised that the players took the game involving Australia as their inspiration.  We should ask Egypt here for a friendly - I'm sure we'd get a decent crowd at League Headquarters. (My skills at lip-reading Egyptian improved out of sight as I came to understand the broader sub-plot of the game).

I liked the linguistic reference to the 2006 match too.  (When road testing this post with my tri-lingual work colleague he got it at once!).

Go Egypt - we thank you!