Egypt entered the record books here on Sunday, beating Ghana 1-0 in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations with supersub Mohamed 'Gedo' Nagy lifting the Pharaohs to their third straight title.
Mohamed Nagy (Gedo) of Egypt celebrates after scoring a goal during their final match of the African Cup of Nations CAN2010 at the November 11 stadium in Luanda, Angola.
Gedo, who has scored from the bench in Egypt's last four games in Angola, came on in the 63rd minute and produced his magic with five minutes left on the clock to cement Egypt's standing as the kings of Africa.
The win also gave veteran coach Hassan Shehata a history-making third championship after Cairo in 2006 and Accra in 2008 and extended Egypt's unbeaten record in the competition to an astonishing 19 games.
Shehata's assistant, Shawky Garib, said: "I'd like to congratulate Ghana for what they did today (Sunday).
"It's important to take your chance, and today we took it. But we respect the Ghana team, they played a very good match today.
"We said we were the champions from the first day we arrived in Angola, and we would defend our title.
"We have won three titles in 2006, 2008 and 2010. This was the most difficult of all of them."
By the end it all felt very familiar. There again was the goalkeeper, Essam El Hadary, bouncing up and down on the crossbar. There again was the coach, Hassan Shehata, being thrown in the air by his players like a birthday boy being given the bumps. And there, yet again, was Ahmed Hassan, receiving the cup from Issa Hayatou, raising it and pointing his finger in the air in thanks to Allah. As it was in Cairo, as it was in Accra, so it was again in Luanda.
By winning an unprecedented third consecutive Cup of Nations, this Egypt side have confirmed their place in history. They will not be at this summer's World Cup finals in South Africa but this may be the best team Africa has produced. Records were broken or extended wherever you looked.
This is Egypt's seventh title, three more than their nearest challengers, Cameroon and Ghana, who must now live in the knowledge that they have only won as many as Hassan, Egypt's remarkable captain. Five other players – This is Egypt's seventh title, three more than their nearest challengers, Cameroon and Ghana, who must now live in the knowledge that they have won only as many as Hassan, Egypt's remarkable captain. Five other players – El Hadary, Hany Said, Wael Gomaa, Ahmed Fathy and Emad Meteeb – played in all three finals, while Shehata who, after 18 games, is still unbeaten in the competition, equalled the Ghanaian CK Gyamfi's record of three titles as coach.
As in those previous two finals Egypt were not especially convincing. They were the best team in the tournament and deserved their success but they were perhaps fortunate that a youthful Ghana could not find penetration to match their passing. Asamoah Gyan, a figure reborn in this competition, toiled heroically alone up front but their coach, Milovan Rajevac, will know he was left too isolated. Only with a couple of free-kicks, one just too high and one flapped uneasily wide by El Hadary, did they go close.
Finally we can say : Egypt have been the best team of the tournament and are deserved winners. Ghana, however, were probably the better team in the final, but never made the most of their possession and paid the price when Gedo came off the bench with 20 minutes to go. Ghana at least have the consolation that they have a World Cup to look forward to and, with this young team plus the likes of Michael Essien, they have reason to be optimistic about their chances of getting out of their group in South Africa. Egypt get to keep the trophy as it's their third successive victory.
