São Paulo – Fans in Algiers did not seem too sad about the national team’s elimination from the World Cup round of sixteen last Monday evening (30th), according to the Algerian news agency Algérie Presse Service (APS). After all, the team has left the tournament with their heads up high, after qualifying for the second stage for the first time in history. The Algerians lost 2 to 1 to Germany in Porto Alegre, in a dramatic match where all the goals were scored during overtime.
Fans took to the streets of the Algerian capital like they did after each of the national team’s World Cup games, according to APS. The young fans had mixed feelings: on the one hand, disappointment over the elimination, but on the other hand, pride over the historic performance. It was Algeria’s fourth time in a World Cup.
“I feel somewhat embittered, but we do have to take our hats off to our players, who fought like lions today,” a young fan of the “Greens,” as the Algerian team is called, told APS, while sipping tea near the large post office building, a landmark of downtown Algiers, where a big screen was installed for the World Cup.
The atmosphere, according to the news agency, was less festive than in previous matches, but some mustered the courage to parade in cars around the streets, and fireworks were lit to honour the “heroes of Porto Alegre.”
“It has been a great run for our team, we are proud,” said a man in his fifties to APS, who believes the defeat was chiefly a consequence of the players’ being tired. He believes playing four matches in 14 days is a “true marathon.”
Comments about the game and the players’ total commitment to the mission were common among the young people gathered in small groups in different neighbourhoods of Algiers, according to the agency. The general feeling is that the team has honoured the national colours.
Overcoming
In Porto Alegre, the Algerian goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi, voted the game’s best player, summed up the team’s feelings. “We have seen that Algeria can play at a very high level, and we will continue,” he said, according to the news website of the Rio Grande do Sul state government. He made some incredible catches during the match.
“It’s difficult to come to terms with what we did today and throughout the World Cup,” midfielder Medhi Lacen told the Fifa website. “It’s amazing to think that we’ve even managed to do better than the 1982-1986 generation,” he added.
In 1982, in Spain, Algeria defeated the then-West Germany in the first stage, but ended up eliminated after the Germans beat Austria, in what many considered a “fixed” match. The Algerians had lost to Austria and lost by goals scored. Algerian fans had never come to terms with this before today.
“Ever since I started playing for my country, there was always a lot of talk about that previous generation,” Lacen told Fifa’s site. “It didn’t really put pressure on us, but people were always drawing comparisons; before each match or tournament, the team and its achievements were always brought up. There was mention of Madjer, Belloumi, and Nourredine Kourichi, who’s part of our staff here. It wasn’t a burden, but it did crop up a lot,” he said, referring to Algerian players of the 1980s.
He believes Algeria ranks among the top three teams in Africa. “This time we confirmed it,” said the player, who also played the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. “We’ll be able to tell our successors that we played in the first-ever World Cup to be held in Africa in 2010, but also in Brazil, the greatest football country in history, where we managed to qualify for the second round,” he added.
Ramadan
Before the game, fans of the North African team showed confidence. “I was here for the first match and I enjoyed coming back, the people seem happier here and furthermore, Porto Alegre gave us luck, because we won the first time around,” said Ali Hani, according to the state government website. The Beira Rio stadium was the setting for Algeria’s landslide 4 to 2 victory over South Korea in the first stage of the World Cup.
In the first half of the game, according to the site, Algerian fans showcased a bit of Muslim tradition. They split the bread to break the Ramadan fast as soon as the sun set. The holy month of Muslims began last weekend, and throughout this period, followers refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset.
The game was the tournament’s last to be played in Porto Alegre and was attended by the Algerian ambassador in Brasília, Djamel Eddine Omar Bennaoum, the state governor Tarso Genro, Fifa president Joseph Blatter, and the Brazilian minister of Sports Aldo Rebelo.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
