hassling the neighborhood

I happen to live across the street from the Algerian Embassy, which is a bit of a noise hazard. Once, there was a very long protest period in which Algerian students camped outside the Embassy for several weeks, sleeping on the sidewalk and banging drums sometimes, always under the watchful eyes of Egyptian riot police who set up camp in my neighborhood for that period.

Sometimes, the Algerian diplomats also have loud parties that go very late into the night, and which are very brightly floodlit to accompany the noise.

And today… Well, carloads of honking Egyptians are driving by with Egyptian flags waving from their windows, and crowds are chanting soccer fight songs.

Why? Because the final World Cup qualifier for Egypt takes place here in Cairo tomorrow: an Egypt-Algeria showdown. They are the top two teams in their qualifying group, and only the top team advances to South Africa next summer. Egypt lost the first match in Algeria a long time ago, and now needs a big win over Algeria to advance to the World Cup finals.

I don’t remember Egypt making it that far since the 1990 World Cup (where they nearly upset England), but I would have to look it up to make sure.

But I guess this is just gamesmanship… Lots of patriotic Egyptian soccer fans must figure that hassling the Algerian Embassy today will help create a sort of psychological edge for tomorrow’s match.