Word: soccering
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Everyone is obsessed with soccer, and everyone loves it even if they don't play - like me, for example," says Sheikh Ali Abdel Ba'i, one of Egypt's state-appointed Muslim clerics, of the national pastime. "Football captures people's hearts. It's a game for the people...
...pulsing, chaotic celebration of pounding drums, blaring car horns and exploding fireworks on sidewalks. Buses were commandeered, and mobs ran screaming through the streets. But the victory that was being celebrated was not from a war as much as a single battle: the home leg of the national soccer team's double header against Algeria, whose outcome will determine which country makes it to next year's World Cup in South Africa. Egypt's second goal, in the dying minutes of the game, had given the home team a 2-0 victory that put it neck and neck with...
...continent-wide African Nations Cup, it has not made it to the World Cup since 1990 (when it booked its passage with a win over Algeria). Being represented on the premier stage of the global game is no small feat for a country that is obsessed with both soccer and its national image. Nor have Egypt-Algeria encounters traditionally passed without incident: the 1989 qualifier was followed by riots in which an Egyptian team doctor lost an eye and Interpol issued an arrest warrant for an Algerian player...
...heightened security, and the U.S. embassy warned its citizens to stay off the streets last Saturday. After the game, rows of Egyptian riot police armed with batons and shields lined the roadways leading into Cairo's central Tahrir Square, as chanting mobs flooded into the thoroughfare. (Read "Star Soccer Player's Suicide Leaves Germany Stunned...
...rooted historical animosity between Egypt and Algeria, suggesting that a cold history between the two North African states could be partly to blame for the tension and violence. But the country's social frustration that is largely suppressed by its authoritarian government may also be finding expression in the soccer hysteria...