After his 10th win in his 10th game for Misr, Coach Fairness had a really busy week. Late on Sunday he held a little press conference, where we caught him for our interview:
Press: Congrats to you 10th win in a row with egypt's squad! What does that success mean to you?
FN: Thanks. It's always great to have a perfect record, but for us the most important thing is that we stay on rank 1 to not meet Marocco in the 1st PO-Round. 10 of 10 is a great record, and I want to thank my players for that!
Press: Yousef played stellar so far, is he the biggest reason why you're ranking No. 1?
FN: Yousef played great, yes, for me he's the best in Africa. But he isn't the biggest reason, because we have no "biggest" reason. We have many HUGE reasons why we're No. 1 - The 18 players, all the scouts and the managers who do their best to keep the players in good shape."
Press: How proud are you, to lead a team like Misr, that has the chance to play at the WC next season?
FN: It's such a big honour. We haven't reached the finals yet, so I don't want to talk about the WC, but it would be so fantastic if we would reach our main goal.
Press: What feelings do you have for the last 4 games?
FN: Tomorrow vs. Marocco and next week against Nigeria. We hope we can clinch rank 1, but it won't be easy. Marocco is a strong outside-based team - they possess good 3P-shooters and theynearly always have high offensive flow. Nigeria had some bad shapes in the last few weeks, but I'm sure their manager will try to tell his players' managers to secure good shapes until the POs.
Press: What do you think - who get's the 4th?
FN: South Africa has the easiest games left now against their two competitors Tounes and Ghana, so I'd say South Africa wins the fight. Tounes had some bad moments in the last weeks and Ghana won't have any chance against Nigeria."
Press: WC or not - any plannings for the next season?
FN: Everyone knows that I'm a "future-first" Coach. Of course I had some thoughts about next season, I follow some guys the whole season now and I'm in contact with their managers. I've got a long list which is always up-to-date. The main steps follow in the first weeks of S18."
Press: How would you describe the development of your squad since you've coached it?
FN: We have many guys that got trained the whole season long. I'm very pleased with the effort of Arabi and Ibn-Osman, our two youngest. El-Ibrahim also worked fine, like Haj-Hamdan did. Really suprising for me was Naser Ismail (27 yo), who got 4 Ups in 8 weeks!
Press: We heard you didn't make the Playoffs with your Austrian squad, what means that now for your work with Egypt?
FN: Yes I got 5th to not pay salary for the next two weeks, my next season's Ravens will be something special. I'll spend the next weeks to care about Egypt, what means that I'll try to get in contact with the managers and talk a bit about their players. If you need something, you can find me in Kairo ;-)
Press: Ok, then good luck for the next weeks. Thanks for the interview!
FN: Thanks! You're welcome.
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Last 4 games:
17.10.2011 19:30:00 - vs. Marocco (2nd Round)
24.10.2011 19:30:00 - vs. Nigeria (2nd Round)
28.10.2011 19:30:00 - vs. ? (Playoff-Semifinal)
31.10.2011 time TBD - vs. ? (Playoff-Final or Scrimmage)