Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Rivalry

I was reading an article a few minutes ago about what is allegedly the most intense rivalry in soccer: Egypt vs. Algeria.

It's basically soccer with stabbing and riots and homicide and diplomatic incidents. The "diplomatic incidents" help distinguish it from garden variety European soccer rivalries.

I watched a few minutes of clips on YouTube of past matches, and it's as antagonistic as any soccer footage I've ever seen. Physical doesn't begin to describe it, and the referees look completely overwhelmed from the minute the match starts.

Tomorrow, the teams are playing again, this time in the 2010 African Cup of Nations. It starts at 1:30 p.m. CST (adjust for your local time zone, but in Europe, that means it will be mid-evening). If you're interested, it's going to be broadcast on BBC3, Setanta Sports USA (I think DirecTV has this channel), and of course you can probably watch it on your desktop thanks to  Justin TV.

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