Delight for Super Zambia!

Zambia's sensational African Cup of Nations has just ended with emotional glory when they defeated the huge favourites Côte d'Ivoire in an intense final in Libreville! Like everyone in the stadium (except the Ivorians), I also got carried away by the glorious spirit, fight, and the memory of the 1994 team that died in Gabon. I really wanted to see Zambia win, and was tense throughout the nailbiting penalty shootout that took them to a seventh penalty!

Be sure to see some of these great players in the Europeans league soon!

The Ivorians went through the tournament without conceding a goal, but at the same time, three of their greatest players did not step up when it counted; Drogba missed a penalty during the match, and the misses in the shootout were by other stars, Kolo Touré and Gervinho.

The disappointment of the Ivorians must be enormous, as this represents another disappointment for a team with everpresent expectations.

It has been a truly great African Cup of nations, and Zambia's triumph makes it all the more memorable.

Glorious Zambia, and I wish I were in Lusaka now!

Zambia in the final

It is hard not to have sympathy for Zambia's football team: in the 80s and early 90s they were an important part of the African football awakening that was to take the world by storm right until 1993, when the entire team was killed in an air disaster when heading to a World Qualifier. While in 1994 they made it to the African Nations Cup final, they still never fully recovered from the tragedy.
Now, Zambia is in the African Nations Cup final yet again after defeating Ghana 1-0 in the semifinal. While I was unapologetic in supporting the Black Stars, one cannot help having the sympathy for the Zambians who fought well and with a bit of always-necessary luck managed to defeat the favorites of Ghana.
Zambia will be facing Cote d'Ivoire in the final on Sunday.

Gabon out, Ghana in

Mali made it to the semifinal of the Africa Cup of Nations after defeating the co-hosts Gabon on penalty kicks. Gabon played a good match with massive home support that included Gabon's long-time president Omar Bongo. It was an intense match where Gabon took the lead early in the second half by Eric Mouloungui. But with only seven minutes left Bordeaux striker Cheick Diabate equalized for Mali, and the match went into extra time, and eventually, penalties. In particular Mali's players were extraordinarily cool, and made it look very easy on every one of their shots. For the disappointed Gabonese, their only miss was by their young star, St. Etienne striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Surely a disappointment for the youngster, whom I am nevertheless sure we will hear more about. But you should have seen Mr. Bongo's face when Aubameyang missed the penalty.... The other quarterfinal today was between Ghana and Mali, which turned out a not too pretty match with some very dirty play by the Tunisians towards the end. Ghana took an early lead by captain John Mensah, but Tunisia equalized before halftime by Saber Khelifa. The match also had to go into extra time, and it undoubtedly looked like another round of penalty kicks until the Tunisian goalkeeper, Aymen Mathlouthi, made a huge mistake, when he could not hold a rather easy ball which instead fell to Andre Ayew, who could easily score Ghana's winner. Both semifinals on next Wednesday will be very exciting matches:

• Ghana-Zambia
• Cote d'Ivoire-Mali

And I support GHANA!

A goal to die for!

Yesterday I watched Ghana-Guinea in the last group matches of the African Cup of Nations. Ghana went ahead on a goal to die for: Emmanuel Badu, the super talented 21 year old of Udinese, scored a stunning goal to put Ghana ahead! 23 meter from goal he gave the ball a tip to lift it before hammering it in mid-air. It was a goal that reminded me of Eder against the USSR in 1982, and I was delighted for Ghana.
The match ended 1-1, which was enough for Ghana to qualify as group leaders. It was surely a pity for Guinea who put pressure on the Black Stars and have been a great team to watch. Ghana has not been overly exciting to watch so far besides the goals. But that is also what makes them favourites: Ghana has experience and know that to win a big tournament, you need to pace yourself. Surely Ghana will have to lift their style for the next match against Tunisia, but they also know that very well.
The quarterfinals of a very exciting tournament are as follows:

• Zambia-Sudan
• Ghana-Tunisia
• Gabon-Mali
• Cote d'Ivoire-Equatorial Guinea

Africa Cup of Nations 2012

Over the last years the African Cup of Nations has grown in importance and is surely one of the best international tournaments in the world today, assembling some of the strongest African talent. As often, the tournament is surrounded by political controversy, and no less this year, being hosted by two nations, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

But far beyond this, the most interesting part is the football. The defending champions, Egypt, were unable to qualify, and so were the (former?) giants of Nigeria, who still seem to be unable to take advantage of their huge pool of talent, South Africa, who did not qualify in the most ridiculous way, and Cameroon, who were eliminated by Senegal.

On the other hand, some rather previously unknown nations have come forward: Equatorial Guinea, Niger and Botswana are all participating for the first time, while Burkina Faso, Libya and Sudan are all eager to show their footballing passion at the highest level. Zambia, a nations with enormous footballing talent, but who suffered by losing their entire football team in a fight accident, is back with a strong talented side, while Tunisia and Senegal will want to return to their previous times of glory. Mali also has a very interesting side that is worth watching.

Although the tournament has many interesting and powerful sides, the favourites are surely the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Both teams have a strong base of experienced European-based players, and both have experience of international tournaments at the highest level.

My support and heart is with the Black Stars! And I hope to be able to watch some African football from here in South America!

South African excuses

I am not going to join the choir criticizing South Africa's Football Association (SAFA) or coach for their inability to qualify to the African Nations Cup. No, instead I am going to commend the coach, Pitso Mosimane, for his apparent strategic abilities: knowing (or thinking....) that 0-0 against Sierra Leone was enough to qualify, he decided to play on the result rather than a victory against a team most people would think would be easy for the Bafana Bafana to defeat.
Modern football. Why win (at home) when you can tie...?
Turns out 0-0 was not enough, since in case of point-equality, the rules were unfortunately misinterpreted: in case of point-equality, the first criteria to decide who is first, is the mutual encounter between the two concerned teams, and not the score. With this calculation, South Africa was out, and Niger was sensationally qualified.
So what did Pitso Mosimane do? Complain that the rules had not been clear. And in such situations, where a coach has not qualified and is proving somewhat controversial, other football associations might distance themselves from their man.
But not SAFA! No, these guys supported their coach, and were apparently not aware of the regulations either, and lodged a complaint to SAFA about the rules.
Stand by your man! Even when it means making a fool of your footballing system! That is what team sport means!
South Africa will not be going to the African Cup of Nations. But Niger will be great to see there.

You gotta be grateful that the same people running South African football are not running the rest of the country...