When Egypt were announced as hosts of the 27th IHF Men’s World Championship at the 2015 IHF Congress in Sochi, they certainly did not expect to be holding the event under such challenging circumstances. Packed arenas with thousands of fans supporting the home team and a general interest in all the matches were expected. 

One year ago, Egypt were crowned African champions and booked a direct ticket to the Olympic Games. Roughly half a year prior to that, Egypt’s teams reached the semi-finals at both the Junior and Youth World Championships and the African nation became the first ever non-European side to win the U19 event – all of which lent even more promise to the situation for the host country. 

And then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, raising an infinite number of questions and creating a great deal of uncertainty as January 2021 as the expected throw-off date for the World Championship drew nearer. 

In the end, Egypt play in empty halls with only match officials, a small number of media and the necessary volunteers in the arena. 

For the Egypt team, it has been a challenging period of preparation for what could have been a pinnacle experience in the careers of the players – a home court spurred by thousands of fans, entering as continental champions and a talented squad touted by legendary Ahmed Elahmar as one of the best teams Egypt has ever fielded. Certainly it is still an experience for the team, but not quite what was hoped for. 

“We passed the part of being a little bit frightened, a little bit hesitant”

Nevertheless, Egypt enjoyed a strong preliminary round campaign in Group G, opening with confident wins against Chile and last-minute replacements for Czech Republic, North Macedonia, before losing by just one goal in a thrilling clash to decide top of the table versus Sweden. 

“Of course everyone was a little bit hesitant,” says 2020 African Championship MVP Yehia Elderaa after their opening clash versus Chile, during which he scored six goals at 100% and made six assists. “We were trying to gain some confidence. The game went so well – we had a good start and then in the second half we tried to push some of the young players to get into the vibe and get used to the atmosphere of the championship.” 

​

​“We had been preparing for Czech for a month or something like that, but we had the pressure to start preparing all over again in 48 hours for Macedonia. It wasn’t that easy but we gained our concentration again. We passed the part of being a little bit frightened, a little bit hesitant in the competition. Most of the players played in the first game and they got the vibe and they got the feeling. I think we put a lot of concentration in Macedonia’s game because this game was so important for us – it’s another push for the steps we are taking and it would help us to go to the main round so it was so important for us. 

“Luckily we started really, really good and everything in the game – everything we studied, everything we prepared for happened. We were lucky to have this goal difference. It made us play freely, gave more time to the young players, for everyone to see what we can do and it finished well.”

The game against Sweden saw Egypt lead 12:9 at half-time, before the European side fought back to level as the last quarter of the game began and finally took a 24:23 win. 

“They are one of the most difficult teams in the world and they are one of the top-level teams we will play. The good thing is we are used to playing against Sweden – in every championship in the group stage,” says Elderaa. “We prepared really well and I think that was translated in the game.”

“It was tough because we didn’t have any pre-season or preparations or friendly games against some of the top-level teams – that’s why, in this game, it was a little bit different from any other game we played or any of the training we did.

“We had to keep continuing and keep fighting and get used to hitting harder. They’re one of the strongest defences for the past years of course. But with all of this, we started a very, very good first half.

“We enjoyed it. It was a really good handball game of course, between us. But some of the mistakes that happened at the end, we will try not to do it again of course, and they used our mistakes.” 

“This is in the past and that’s a good thing to know ‘OK now we played a good game’ but in the end we couldn’t continue and we didn’t win. It’s in the past. We have to throw it back. We are now in the main round and we still have a chance to play, we have a chance to go to the quarter-finals, but we have to do our maximum effort and we have to put everything and we have to stay focused.” 

“That’s the cost of playing against some of the strong teams”

They say you learn the most from losses, so what are the lessons for Egypt from this match?

“We need to extend the time we can keep focused and try to divide the efforts and energy we’re consuming between all of us,” says Elderaa, who highlights the small details as being so decisive in such a close match. 

“Take the right decisions while you’re under pressure, while you’re so consumed. That’s the cost of playing against some of the strong teams – when you do some easy mistakes or you lose one ball: fast break, fast break, fast break. So, we just need to, in the last 15 minutes, stay more and more focused. I think we already know our mistakes.”

Among Egypt’s squad at the World Championship are 2019 IHF Men’s Youth (U19) World Championship MVP Ahmed Hesham, top scorer of the same event Hassan Kaddah, and 2019 IHF Men’s Junior (U21) World Championship bronze medallist Seif Elderaa – younger brother of Yehia. Hesham and Walid were part of the Spain 2019 junior squad as well, earning two medals in one summer.

“The level of playing in the juniors or the youth differs from the seniors of course, but they’ve been training with us for a long time,” says Yehia Elderaa, adding that these players are all with top clubs in Egypt or, in Hesham’s case, already playing in Europe (French club Nimes). Add to that the fact that the likes of Mohammad Sanad, Mohamed Mamdouh and Yahia Omar are playing abroad as well – most notably Omar, who is with top Champions League side Veszprém. Mamdouh won the Champions League in 2018 with Montpellier. 

“We have a good mixture that will lift the national team up. I think it’s a little bit of pressure right now because the championship is in Egypt and we didn’t play a lot of friendly games and that hits the rhythm of playing against the good teams or the hard teams,” says Elderaa, before commenting on the young players specifically. 

“Of course we need them, of course we want them to play, of course they can be an addition, but in the same way we don’t want to let them beat themselves up for not being able to do what they are able to do.

“They are all really good and they are all worth the places. They can play and they can do really, really good things. I hope they can help us in this tournament. We still have three games and hopefully we can pass them and go to the quarter-finals.

“Right now we are just focused on going to the main round and learning from our mistakes. Now we can gather everything and start a new page.” 

“We know how good our handball is”

It is not only the tournament itself that is taking place in unexpected circumstances, but – as was the case for all teams competing – Egypt were not able to have a smooth preparation, spring-boarding from the African Championship through the Olympic Games to reach the World Championship as a squad in top form and with another important competition behind them due to the postponement of the Olympic Games. 

“It was really tough actually, because the sequence of events changed. It was good finishing the African championship and we were preparing with some good games and we were going to the Olympics. At the Olympics you would get more hyped, play some good games and get the feelings of being an athlete and being happy and knowing your worth,” says Elderaa. 

“It would have been good preparation for the World Championship, but everything changed.”

After the pandemic swept the world last March, Egypt were among those forced into confinement and that meant several months with essentially not real training and a need to start over again. 

“We started since July to train – getting ready for all the teams, getting ready for every situation, preparing all the tactics, getting the team more and more close. I think as a team we did what we could do to be ready for this championship, but in the end you are playing a World Championship so you have to know where you stand, not to get surprised, not to find out in the real test,” says Elderaa, highlighting the negative side of not being able to play competitive matches as a squad. Add to that the positive COVID-19 cases that were experienced by the team. 

“Every time we were going to the peak, two or three players went down and when they came back they of course try to start all over again, slower and slower. We had so many hard times actually. The players coming from Europe – Sanad, he was injured. Yahia had corona and stayed 20 days [in isolation] and then he played the FINAL4. Everything was not stable, everything was not the best way to be in the World Championship – but in the end we are known to defeat anything, defeat any obstacles we can see in front of us. I think we can do it. We will do our best.”

Now, three matches into the World Championship, Elderaa says the team will continue to take one match at a time. 

“We know how good our handball is. We have confidence and we are preparing for Wednesday’s game and we’ll do everything for it. The other games we will see – when we finish [Russian Handball Federation]’s game, we are going to do our best in the next one.”