PREVIEW: The Pharaohs with Tardelli at the helm will have their first real test tonight.

At 8 PM Cairo time, the Pharaohs will kick off their World Cup 2006 qualification campaign with an important away game against Sudan.

Egypt will go to the match as strong favorites to win the 3 points, but out of home and with nothing to lose Sudan can prove to be a very tough opponent. The new system of the qualification
which gives the group winner only a place in the next world cup plus both 2nd & 3rd qualifying to the next CAN, it means that all nations in the group will play all their games at their highest level.

Egypt enter this match having lots of concerns, Since last CAN, the Egyptian team looks to have lost their self confidence. After last CAN, the Egyptian team changed their manager and Mr Marco Tardelli was appointed the new manager.

The Egyptian new manager made a huge surprise to all people with his selections. Mido, Ghaly & Zidan were left out of the squad with lots of questions asked about why the manager left Egypt's best players.

Egypt played since last CAN 3 matches against Trinidad, Gabon & Zimbabwe. Although all 3 matches ended to Egypt's favor, there were lots of concerns about the team performance. The new squad included some new faces like Abo Treka, Osama Hosni, Hassan Mostafa & Hosni Abd Raboh. Mr Tardelli prefers the 4-4-2 formation instead of 3-5-2 that former coach Mohsen Saleh used.

As for Sudan they have been out of international presence for a very long time as they haven't managed to qualify for the CAN since a very long time. Sudan were one of the nations that founded the African football association, that was at 1947. Sudan have never qualified to the world cup although their 1st time to participate in the world cup qualifiers was back at 1958. At the last world cup qualifiers Sudan were at the same group with Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone & Liberia. Sudan ended the group in 3rd place ahead of Ghana & Sierra Leone. Sudan played in the primary
round of this year qualifying campaign. The played against Eritrea and they won at home 3-0 and managed a scoreless result in Eritrea. Sudan main squad play in top league leaders Al-Hilal (who kicked Al-Ahly out of this year African champions league), while their rest of the squad are playing in the domestic league.

People in Sudan believe that it's time for their nation to be back and to play at the highest level. For that the Sudanese association looked for a foreign coach who can bring success back to the team. Polish wazarik was hired the hot seat & although it will be very hard for him to fulfill the supporters dream in the qualifiers, but as Egypt will host the next CAN then the 4th of the group will have the advantage to play in the next CAN. Sudan played 2 matches in their preparations for this match. The 1st was against Uganda where they ended the match in a 2-1 victory & the 2nd ended in a 2-0 loss against Zambia. Sudan main players are both Haytham Tombol & Motaz Kaber who look to be he main striking force for their team.

PAST MEETINGS:

Egypt 1st meeting against Sudan was at 1957 in the 1st ever CAN, the game ended in Egypt favor 2-1. While their last meeting was in a friendly in 2002, Egypt managed a 3-0 victory. Egypt Faced Sudan 15 times before 11 of them ended in Egypt favor while only one match ended for Sudan while the other 3 ended in both teams sharing the match points.

EXPECTED LINE-UPS:

EGYPT: El Hadary, Mohamed Abd El Wahab, Beshir El Tabi, Islam El Shater, Hassan Mostafa, Mohamed shawky, Hosni Abd Raboh, Mohamed Homos, Mohamed Abo Treka, Hossam Hassan.

Come to EP tonight for a live minute by minute report on the game...

• Discuss the latest about Egyptian soccer in EP forums
• Check this special offer: Web Hosting for only $9.95/month Click here!