Ahly vs. Zamalek

Last Friday I accomplished one of my goals for this semester by seeing Egypt's biggest domestic football game: Ahly vs. Zamalek. FIFA said that the two clubs share "one of the world's fiercest footballing rivalries," and while the match does not have talent of El Clasico or the Milan derby it certainly shares the passion. This year Al-Ahly had already more or less wrapped up the league title, but a win over their archrivals would be a particularly sweet way to clinch the title. Meanwhile, Zamalek could insure a second place finish, and thus a place in next year's African Champions League, by a victory. Of course bragging rights until the next game next year were also on the line. The price for a second class seat to the game? 30 pounds, or between 5 and 6 dollars. Not too shabby.

We showed up to Cairo International Stadium about an hour and a half before kickoff, to find the stadium already almost completely filled up. Our first error was to enter the Ahly gates, even though we intended to support Zamalek. After we saw that the Zamalek section was still open we asked the guards if we could cross the "no man's land" between the two areas, guarded by two rows of riot police. After some deliberation we were allowed to go over, and found seats with high but good view of the entire field.

The game surpassed all my expectations. Zamalek got off to a stunning start by scoring in the first minute, and the Ahly section went dead quiet. For the rest of the first half there was non-stop action, as the two teams traded goals before going to the locker room tied at 2 all. The second half was a little calmer, so when Zamalek scored with under 15 minutes remaining it seemed that they might have wrapped the game up. The Zamalek section got rowdier and rowdier as the clock wound down, until the game reached injury time, the extra time added by the referee to make up for time lost on injuries and other distraction during the half. Then disaster struck as Ahly scored an equalizer in the final minutes, and it the Zamalek section's turn to fall silent, except for the sound of curses and a few chairs broken in anger. The remaining time expired without incident, and although the game ended in a draw the Ahly crowd definitely came away with a better feeling, having taken a point away from what looked like certain defeat. Despite my disappointment at the result I mostly felt lucky to have witnessed such an incredible game, which provided great entertainment both on and off the field. Here's a video of the game's six goals.