Will October 8 be a historic day?

CAIRO – 03 October 2017: The Egyptian national team is set to meet Congo on Sunday, October 8 at Borg Al Arab Stadium in Egypt and it may be a day that we will never forget. Egypt has the opportunity to decide its own destiny and qualify to the 2018 World Cup if it wins this match.

But there is only one condition: Ghana must breakdown Uganda by beating it or end the match with a draw in their match on Saturday, October 7 at Mandela National Stadium in Uganda.

Egyptians are calling it "World Cup dilemma", as we did not qualify to the biggest football tournament in the world since 1990 when Mahmoud El Gohary, Egypt’s former coach, led the national team to qualify to the 14th tournament, which was held in Italy.

Egypt’s head coach Hector Cuper didn`t live the hardship of the past 27 years with us. He did not witness teams like Togo and Angola qualify to World Cup while Egypt failed to do the same job by stumbling against teams like Benin, Namibia and Liberia. I excuse him.

But he suffered in his career in a different way. Cuper lost 13 finals, including one with Egypt in CAN 2017 against Cameroon. Is it the right time to remember these events? I think "Yes." We need to remember frustrating moments the same as we need to recall the happy moments to help us achieve our goal.

Samuel L. Jackson, in "The Sunset Limited" movie, said, "The light is all around you, but you don't see nothing but shadow. And you're the one causing it. It's you. You're the shadow! That's the point."

Cuper and the players shall believe that they are capable of qualifying to the World Cup; we are the shadow. El Gohary was the protagonist because he believed of what he can do. He told the players, "when you want something in your life, you just got to reach out and grab it." And they did it.