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against the Warriors at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Bradley is hoping to take his second straight team to the World Cup finals after guiding his native United States to a place at the 2010 World Cup show in South Africa where they reached the second round before falling to Ghana.
The Pharaohs have failed to qualify for the World Cup since their last appearance at the tournament in Italy in 1990 despite dominating football on the continent and Bradley was hired to provide that technical touch to help them take a giant leap forward.
Such has been their commitment on qualifying for the next World Cup in Brazil that the Nations Cup has turned into something of a distractive side-show with all eyes, and resources, committed to ensuring that they play in Brazil.
Playing against a background of political unrest in their country, which has seen the domestic championship being disturbed repeatedly, and the Pharaohs being forced to play some of their international assignments in empty stadiums, the Egyptians have done considerably well to be where they are today in the race to Brazil.
They lead the group, with maximum points from three matches, and they could seal their ticket into the final qualifying pool during this Southern African leg of their tour, either on Sunday or next weekend in Mozambique, depending on the outcome of results in Guinea.
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Guinea, who have four points from three matches and trail the Egyptians by five, host Mozambique in Conakry this weekend before hosting Zimbabwe next weekend and their final qualifier will be away in Egypt.
It means that if the Pharaohs beat the Warriors or Mozambique next weekend, and Guinea fail to win back-to-back home matches against the same opponents, the Egyptians could seal their place in the final qualifying pool without waiting for the outcome of their last match against Guinea at home.
Bradley’s men were given a tough test, in their last trip to Conakry, where they needed a very, very late goal to steal a dramatic 3-2 victory and on Sunday they will play their second game on the road against a Zimbabwe team that virtually bowed out of the running for the World Cup show following the loss in Egypt.
The Warriors anchor the group with just a point from three matches, their worst World Cup qualifying run in more than two decades, but they is hope in this country that out of this painful exercise will emerge a team that will be competitive with the initial target being qualifying for the 2015 Nations Cup finals.
The Zimbabweans competed well, against the Egyptians, when the two sides clashed in Alexandria in March and the game was delicately balanced at 1-1, with just two minutes left in regulation time, when the Pharaohs won a penalty that was converted by ageing talisman Mohamed Aboutrika.
Knowledge Musona had scored a beauty for the visitors, for the equaliser, before Augustine Mbara’s tackle on the tricky Mohamed Salah, as the forward raced on goal, proved the decisive moment of a tough contest in which the Warriors received a lot of credit for the way they battled.
Salah has become something like a lucky charm for Bradley after having scored the winning goal in the dramatic 3-2 victory in Guinea.
Yesterday, the North Africans, who will not be flying home after this assignment but will head straight to Mozambique for another World Cup qualifier, brought an enlarged squad of 25 players and 13 officials.
Bradley said he was targeting collecting all six points, from the two Southern African neighbours, but conceded that it won’t be an easy assignment.
The American must have picked something about Southern African teams when Botswana held the Pharaohs to a 1-1 draw in an international friendly in Cairo on Tuesday, with the home side having to come from behind.
The Egyptians looked relaxed when they landed at Harare International Airport and with a number of their players having been here before, on Champions League duty, it’s not really new territory for them.
What will probably change is that this game, unlike the Champions League assignments, will be at the National Sports Stadium and not the artificial surface of Rufaro.
The Pharaohs haven’t dominated any of their three World Cup ties and Bradley told The Herald, shortly after their arrival, that he remained confident in his team’s ability to respond to pressure situations, the way they did in Conakry.
“We have confidence in our team, so we look forward to a good match. We have picked a good team and the group has a strong mentality,” said Bradley.
“The nucleus of this group has been together for over a year now.
“It is a good mix between experienced and young players and I think now we have got a group that believes in what we are trying to accomplish.”
The gaffer said they have done their homework after the first game in Alexandria where the Warriors gave as much as they got before going down 1-2.
Aboutrika scored the late winner.
“It (the match) gave us a chance to look at different players, gave us some information so that we can pick our best team for Sunday,” said Bradley.
“We just feel that they are a good team (Zimbabwe), they work very hard, and well coached so we expect a difficult game.
“They worked very, very hard, were organised (in Alexandria) so we expect a difficult game.
“We are still a team that tries to pass the ball quickly, we try to create chances using the flanks, we know in first leg Zimbabwe won some corners and scored.
“We also created, in the run of play, some great chances, hit the post a few times. I still feel we are a dangerous team and can score in many ways.”
The coach said although they appear to have a healthy cushion of nine points and are on top of Group G they still have a lot of work to do in the coming two away matches before they complete the group with a tie against Guinea at home.
Guinea have four points, Mozambique two while Zimbabwe anchor the table with a mere point they got when they drew with Mozambique in Maputo.
The Egyptians, yesterday late afternoon, had their first session at Prince Edward.
Online Reporter