Senegal champions!

Senegal has won their first African Cup of Nations title ever in an intense final against Egypt. Egypt has reached the final on a strong defense; every play-off match went into extra time, and the side managed by Carlos Queiroz appeared to believe they could win the title in the same way.

And they almost did: in a prelude of what was to come Senegal got a penalty kick at the start of the match, but Sadio Mané's hard shot was saved by the Egyptian goalkeeper from Zamalek, Gabaski. 

Gabaski was simply splendid throughout the match, and caught everything that got through the otherwise strong and organised Egyptian defense, and as the match went into extra time and penalties with the score 0-0 one had to wonder whether Egypt's plan would work with a goalkeeper that seemed invincible on the day.

But Senegal deservedly prevailed in a nerve-wrecking penalty competition, despite one excellent save from Gabaski on one of the Senegalese shots. But with one shot on the post and a save from Edouard Mendy (perhaps the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment, although Gabaski clearly outshined him today, and very unusually, but deservedly, was made Man of the Match) gave Sadio Mané the opportunity to shoot the victorious penalty kick for Senegal, soon forgetting the penalty kick during the match.

It was the best thing for African football that Senegal won, as they have been the best team throughout the tournament, and despite feeling sorry for Gabaski, Egypt were simply a team defending their way through the tournament. It was also great to see an African manager, Aliou Cissé, managed his side to the title in a continent where too many second rate foreign coaches have managed teams.

It has been a good tournament, but now ten of the teams must look forward to the World Cup playoff matches in March. In fact, Senegal and Egypt will be facing one another for a spot in Qatar in a repeat of today's final, so one of the teams will be missing out of the World Cup. I hope it will be Egypt and would be delighted to see Senegal continue their celebrations!

Down with COVID

 As many players go down with COVID, so did I. Disappointingly, as I feel I have gone to extraordinary lengths to not approach people.

Many games in the English Premier League were cancelled due to players with COVID. Not so Manchester City-Chelsea although both teams had players down with COVID, for Chelsea notably defender Andreas Christensen (who may be on the way to Barcelona). But Manchester City were clearly a better side, despite their narrow 1-0 victory on a magnificent strike by Kevin de Bruyne. After the victory Manchester City are 13 points clear of Chelsea on first place, and look like a very safe bet for English champions.

A team that was not down with COVID, but might as well have been was Ghana. The Black Stars had been poor against Gabon, when they hardly showed any attacking prowess, but against the Comoros the Ghana side also showed poor defending, and despite an almost comeback when being down 0-2, they ended up losing 2-3 and a disgraceful exit for Ghana from the AFCON. But at the same time one must congratulate Comoros who took their first victory in their first Africa Cup of Nations (and may at the time of writing have the option of going through as a best third-placed team).

Someone who does not have COVID is Robert Lewandowski, who just won the FIFA Best Player of the Year award, congratulations to him, although in my view some other players were better. That said, I completely agree that Alexia Putellas and Edouard Mendy were the best female player and goalkeeper respectively.

I will be unable to watch football as I have been asked to completely isolate for 12 days. This means that my TV room is a no-go area, as I imprisoned in just two rooms. This is just another downer of this stupid disease.

 

Very disappointing Ghana

 The African Cup of Nations is always a great tournament and it is great to be able to watch some of the matches here from El Salvador. Ghana has always been my favorite African team, so I was excited to be able to watch the Black Stars against Gabon. Ghana should be considered one of the outsiders for the title, but lost their first match 0-1 to Morocco, and were thus forced to pull a result against Gabon; preferably a win before their last match against the Comoros (whom Gabon defeated 2-0).

Gabon started the best, but the experienced Ghanaians slowly worked their way into the match and I  one of their few attacks Andrew Ayew scored after getting well away from the defender into a good shooting position. But after this Ghana were a disappointment. In the most outdated and boring catenaccio style the Ghanaians stood back to defend their narrow lead against a Gabonese side that had to be commended for playing their chance. Gabon’s reward and Ghana’s well-deserved punishment came in the 88th minute when Jim Allevinah, Claremont striker, equalized for Gabon. 

It was only then that Ghana again attacked, and they even produced a good chance following a corner, but frankly they deserved to be where they were for having played on the 0-1, instead of attacking more. After the match a huge brawl ensued as the Ghanaian players, sore losers, seemed angry at everyone, and amid the row one player was given a red card. 

Ghana did sadly not win friends on this day, and in their final match against Comoros they must show that they can attack, while hoping that Morocco (who has almost qualified with two wins), defeats a hard-working Gabon.