I get to Cairo last Tuesday knowing that Egypt is playing Algeria for a final place in the World Cup and that I want to go. Cairo is already buzzing as Egypt and Algeria have a long history of trouble stemming from Egypt’s perceived lack of support during Algeria’s Civil War and past matches. Many Egyptians I meet refer to Algerians as dirty, envious, dishonest, and low. In 1989 the two teams met in Cairo in a similar situation with Egypt needing a win to advance to the cup — and they got it, but the game was marred by violence including 11 on-field fights and a post-game conference where an Algerian soccer legend attacked the Egyptian team doctor with a bottle costing the doctor his eye. Needless to say there is bad blood between the teams, escalated in the weeks leading up to the match by state press and social network snipes. When the Algerians arrive at the airport their team bus is stoned injuring a few of their players. Egyptian state media denies that this occurred claiming that the Algerians staged the attack despite YouTube videos showing otherwise. FIFA demands better security measures from the Egyptians and threaten to call the match.

Tickets are supposed to be available Wednesday at set points throughout the city but come 7am Wednesday morning it’s announced that tickets aren’t available until Thursday. This infuriates Egyptians who believe tickets are available but are being hoarded by the elite to sell on the black market. Thursday comes and tickets are available – each person allowed up to 3 – but I don’t wake up and wait (for hours) because everything in Cairo is very inexpensive and I’m positive I’ll have no problem scalping one. I underestimated the importance of the game.

In my search for housing in Cairo I stumble across the Algerian embassy where a sizeable Algerian rally is taking place coupled with a heavy police presence. At night there are many Egyptians on the street singing, banging drums, and running with the Egyptian flag. The game is all anyone is talking about. Women are urged not to attend because of the threat of violence — and they do not yell loud enough. Rumors are circulated about multiple fights throughout the city, the death of an Egyptian woman by the hands of an Algerian, 38 Algerians hospitalized from beatings, and 5 brutal beatings at a unity concert with a famous Egyptian and Algerian performer set. Egyptians stay outside the Algerian hotel honking their horns all night to ensure the visiting team gets no sleep.

Friday night arrives and tickets are still impossible to find. I had three contacts – an American, a British soccer journalist, and an Egyptian friend – searching for me to no avail. I tell another Egyptian friend from the hotel my dilemma and after a few calls and a couple of hours of waiting I finally secure a ticket – marked up 300% – and well worth the price. In Cairo there are three classes of tickets with no assigned seating – you sit wherever within your section and ‘class’ and I am able to land a first class ticket which puts me close to the pitch.

Coke has an advertising billboard campaign throughout the city reading ‘Remember 1989′ in reference to the last game versus Algeria of this magnitude. This time Egypt needs to win by 2 goals to force a playoff with Algeria in neutral Sudan – and 3 to advance to the World Cup. Otherwise Algeria qualifies for its first cup in years. I get to the stadium at 1:30pm for the 7:30pm game having been told I’d have to get there hours in advance to get in but expecting a relatively painless process ala entering an American sporting event – nope. There is already a crush of people trying to get thru the one open gate lined with riot police — and the stadium is just a spot in the distance. I join the crowd and am completely surrounded by a building crowd that every few minutes inches a foot or two forward with pushes and elbows. This goes on for an unpleasant half an hour and the whole time I’m thinking this is where people get crushed to death in the stories you read re soccer and death. The closer I get to the front the more intense the jockeying for position as everyone is converging on two police with locked arms slowly letting people thru. I finally manage to get pushed through the first gate and am frisked by multiple police officers before being allowed to proceed – again, no rhyme reason or order to the process.

Figuring the worst is over I head toward the stadium only to find another gate much like the first. This one is more crowded and plays out the same way as the first. Everyone in the mass was very nice and interested in what I was doing there. Some asked how things are done at sporting events in America with one Egyptian telling me getting into the stadium will be the worst experience in my life – because this is only the second of five gates. I have an Egyptian flag draped around me so I fit in well enough. I meet a group of half a dozen big Egyptian college kids and they more or less usher me in the mass through the second and third gate complete with multiple more frisks and searches. I lose them after the 4th gate but manage to get into the stadium after over an hour of pushing in line.

Five hours before the game the stadium is packed – about 80% capacity with everyone standing, singing and cheering. I sit, by myself, but the Egyptian kids I was in line with see me and tell me to come sit with them. They are very nice to me – welcome me to their country, explain the slurs they’re yelling toward the Algerian section, and buy me food. The stadium is loud and amped. This goes on the next five hours with breaks only when a mosque is shown and prayer is put on the jumbotron. The crowd is well behaved though there is an eruption when the heavily guarded Algerian section burns an Egyptian flag and whenever an Algerian player emerges from the tunnel to go onto the field. I hate the wave but it looked great when eighty thousand people all wearing the same colors with the same flags do it – and multiple times massive flags were unfurled down sections where you’re literally underneath the flag holding it up. The jumbotron flashes ‘Welcome Visitors’ overshadowed by an enormous flag that reads ‘Welcome to Hell’. When Egypt’s team comes onto the field the place goes bonkers and stays that way thru the start of the game.

Needing two goals to push to a playoff the stadium is very tense but Egypt scores within the first three minutes and everyone goes ballistic – jumping around, hugging, absolute mayhem. This continues until the second half when having not scored again things begin to get quiet, tense and a bit angry. People in third class are throwing things and there are a few fights around the stadium (the one in my section occurring because everyone stands on their chair and the people behind cannot see unless they too stand on their chair which wasn’t agreeable to everyone). The place was 95% men if my area was representative of the stadium. Come the 85th minute the groans get louder at every missed Egyptian possession and I notice the few women and children around begin to leave and riot police emerge to circle the field. I’m thinking things are going to get interesting and there isn’t an inch of space to move with the aisles packed with people who could not find seats, the standing areas in the concourse full, and people even sitting on the top of the stadium bowl.

The Algerian players begin taking more time on the ground from fouls leading to five or six minutes of added injury time. Egypt is pressing but not getting anywhere and everyone around is distraught. Then, with a minute left in injury time, an Egypt cross finds the head of one of their players and into the goal. The stadium goes ballistic. Never seen anything like it – people are jumping around hugging anyone in sight. Sections are shooting off flares - the Egyptian bench is on the field celebrating - grown men, too many to count, have tears streaming down their faces – its absolute pandemonium. This video shows some of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z49j8qFm7hQ
It’s an unbelievable crazy show of emotion. Prior to the game an Egyptian told me that the people have no hope so they rally around their soccer team – that’s what brings them happiness – and it’s clear this is the case. The game ends, fireworks are set off, and the stadium stays celebrating as the players run around the field. Absolutely unreal.

I finally leave the stadium – which is not served by any metro – and the streets outside are wild. There are huge processions of people celebrating by shooting off flares and aerosol cans w/ lighters to get fire. I walk for about an hour looking for a taxi but the roads are clogged with people, taxis buses and cars have people hanging on them, on top of them, and outside them. I’m trying to get to Tahrir square - the main square in Cairo - where i figure the celebration will be best. Buses in Cairo aren’t like American buses in that they don’t stop at bus stations and they don’t stop for people to get on and get off – they just slow down and you jump on or off – and they don’t all really look like buses. Finally I find one that wouldn’t require me to hang on the outside for dear life (Cairo’s death wish driving is a whole other story) and jump on with no idea where it’s going and a driver that speaks no English. I head straight to the back and figure I’ll get off when most others do and catch a cab from there but I meet a group of Egyptian kids that take significant interest in me, speak broken English, and assure me I can get close enough to the square on this bus. Everyone on the bus is smoking and cheering. They start chanting USA in my honor between regular chants of ‘Masr’ (Egypt in Arabic) and eventually we get off and join the celebration in the square. The area is packed and going nuts – little of which is alcohol induced adding to the atmosphere. Eventually I meet up with an Egyptian friend at a cafe on the square for shisha and he tells me he couldn’t stop crying after the goal. We go on to a cafe / bar popular among AUC students and meet up with my British journalist friend who has been covering soccer for the last decade and says the only thing he’s seen compare to this was a World Cup final. At 3am I head home, the streets still packed with celebrations, and end up talking about the game with the Egyptians in the hotel until 6am.

Since then discussion and replays of the game seem to be the only thing on national TV as the country prepares for tomorrows playoff in Sudan. Cairo is making public transit free tomorrow to encourage people to come out and watch the game.  A win tomorrow will lead to another night of craziness as Egypt will have miraculously qualified for the World Cup.

All in all it was the most amazing sporting event I’ve ever experienced and one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. The Egyptian fans could not have been nicer and the game couldn’t have played out more like a movie script. The amount of emotion in the stadium and streets was unbelievable. Here’s to hoping for a replay tomorrow night. Masr!