The first team out

Don't get me wrong: I was absolutely delighted that Denmark won 2-1 over Cameroon, and that we are now looking forward to a thrilling match between Japan and Denmark about who gets to the last-16. Howver, the lions of Cameroon proved quite domitable, and are the first team of the World Cup to be certainly out (Nigeria for instance, still has a theoretical chance). It is a pity that it is the great Cameroonian side, and well, it certainly augurs badly for African teams: South Africa and Nigeria have a slim chance pf progressing ; Ghana will be facing a tuff match against Germany; Algeria are up against a difficult USA, while Côte d'Ivoire will have to do their best against Brazil and North Corea.
It is looking difficult for African teams during the first World Cup in Africa. I heartily hope Ghana makes it though!

Don't miss it: The African Nations Cup 2008

The African Nations Cup is starting on January 2008 in Ghana. It is bound to be an interesting spectacle, with some intense clashes in the Ghanaian heat and humidity, but I would not expect too much in level of quality: while there are many top players who perform in top clubs in Europe, quality in these types of national tournaments is far below what is seen in top clubs nowadays (with the World Cup being an example).
Nevertheless, with the intensity and nationalism these tournaments engender, it is not to be missed. Also, with the next World Cup 2010 being held in South Africa, it will be interesting to see the way the teams perform.
The groups with the 16 teams are as follows:

• Group A: Ghana, Namibia, Guinea, Morocco
• Group B: Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire
• Group C: Tunisia, Angola, South Africa, Senegal
• Group D: Egypt, Sudan, Zambia, Cameroon

Obviously there are already in the first round some interesting matches!
In group A, the hosts of Ghana, supported by passionate fans, will be expecting nothing else but success at home.
Group B will see giants Nigeria and last cup's finalists Cote d'Ivoire in an interesting West African group, where Mali should be considered some serious outsiders with many very experienced players from European top clubs.
Group C sees some giants of African football, Tunisia and Senegal, with the South Africans, who will desperately be looking for success before the 2010 World Cup, and the new interesting Angolan side, who did so well in the 2006 World Cup.
Finally, group D will see Egypt, defending champions from 2006, and a Cameroonian side, led by Samuel Eto'o, who will be looking for the success they otherwise have the team for!
Don't miss it!!!

Football in Mozambique

I am not in Mozambique due to football. The beautiful country has been little known for anything to do with football, except for the fact that Eusebio, Portugal's best player ever, was actually born in Mozambique, during the days of Portuguese colonialism.

Mozambique has never played a World Cup, they have qualified for only three African Cups, where they were eliminated in the first round each time. Not impressive.

The Mambas, as the national team is called, took part in the preliminary qualifiers in the African zone for the 2006 World Cup. They lost to Guinea after two matches, and that was it for Mozambique's world cup adventure. Not impressive.

Football is popular all over Africa, and many teams compete at highest level. Another lusophone colony, Angola, played their first world cup in 2006, and many should be on the way. However, it doesn't seem Mozambique is one country we will see in the world cup in any foreseeable future. Although I wouldn't bet on it, I have personally been known to have good karma for local teams: Silkeborg IF won their first (and only) Danish Championship when I was there; Ghana qualified for their first world cup when I was there; Valencia qualified for their first champions league final when I was there.

I won't promise Mozambique anything, but I shall do my best while I am in the country :-)

African player of the year

For the third year in a row, Samuel Eto'o has been pronounced African player of the year. Although Didier Drogba and Michael Essien have had great seasons and should be considered candidates (they ended second and third respectively), I agree with the evaluation that Mr. Eto'o has by far out-shined the others. He has continued as a super-striker in the great Barcelona side, and in spite of disappointing results with Cameroun, he has nevertheless been great there as well, as we saw in the recent African Nations Cup.
Congratulations to Mr. Eto'o!

African Cup Finalists: Egypt and Ivory Coast

I have not been following the African Cup with an overly keen interest after Ghana's disappointing exit. But after some great quarterfinals and semifinals, I certainly believe we can look forward to a very good final next Friday, between two of the best teams of the tournament: Home team Egypt against the World Cup bound Ivory Coast.

The Ivorians are in the final after an intense quarterfinal against Cameroon (which was won 12-11 after penalty kicks. Eto'o missed the last penalty for Cameroon, ending in shame a great tournament. I only wonder if he will be treated as Wome was...), and a narrow 1-0 victory against Nigeria in the semifinal. Didier Drogba has been a leading player on the Ivorian side, and he also scored the lone goal against Nigeria.

I am not surprised Egypt is in the final. The home team, "the Pharaohs", have been strong all the way, pushed forward by a wonderful crowd of fans. They easily dispatched Congo 4-1 in the quarterfinal, but had more problems in the semifinal. Senegal put up a great fight, and Egypt looked like a team falling apart when Senegal equalized on a beautiful header. Then, Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata showed himself as a super-star coach: with ten minutes to go, he replaced the Egyptian star Mido with a Amr Zaki. Mido left in disgrace, furious; he almost hit his coach. Mido had not played a good match, and the change proved a brilliant move. Amr Zaki had some magical 10 minutes on the pitch, scoring the winning goal for Egypt.

Great players respect their coach's decision and show restraint. Mido's reaction to his substitution just shows he is not such a player. If I was coach, I would not let him play the final.

In the group stages Egypt already defeated Ivory Coast 3-1. However, the Egyptians should certainly not feel comfortable because of that. The Ivorians are very strong, and will surely do all they can to spoil any party in Egypt on Friday.

What a waste

One of the best Ghanaian players in the African Cup is Issah. He is not only a strong defender on the Ghanaian team, but also on a very strong Asante Kotoko side.

It is therefore with great regrets that I heard he is bound for the Danish club Randers FC. All due respect to this team, that is playing in the secondary league in Denmark, but Mr. Issah could do much better. It is a real waste to see excellent Ghanaian players, who play at highest level, running around on a third-rate league in Denmark. I hope that this is a short stint in Mr. Issah's career. Mr. Issah is far too good for Randers. If we saw Kotoko play Randers, I am certain that Kotoko would destroy the Danish side, so the change for Mr. Issah is because of money, and certainly not quality.

Senegal-Ghana tonight!

Ghana is playing a crucial match against Senegal in the African Cup. Senegal won their first match against Zimbabwe 2-0, while Ghana lost to Nigeria. The Black Stars must win tonight!

I have not been so psyched for a national team match for long. I really hope that the Black Stars will make lion gullasch out of the Senegalese! If not, I will have to buy beer to anyone who supports Senegal!

Good luck Senegalese! You will need it!

Super Samuel Eto'o

Of the games I have seen so far in the African Nations Cup, I have not been overly impressed by the teams. Specially some of the World Cup-bound teams have been a disappointment, and I do hope that this is just preparation, because I cannot see any of them getting far in the World Cup.

One team will be missed though: Cameroun. And that is not so much because of the team, as because of one single player: Samuel Eto'o. The Barcelona striker is at his best these days, and he is certainly showing that himself and Cameroun belong in the World Cup. In the first match he scored three goals against Angola, who is bound for Germany this summer. Today, Eto'o was the best player in giving Cameroun a well-deserved victory against another World Cup team, Togo.

Mr. Eto'o scored an absolutely astonishing first goal, and a brilliant play by him led to a beautiful goal with the heel by Menong-ze.

With the first two games, Samuel Eto'o has shown that he is the best striker in Africa, just as he often has shown he is the best in Spain, and one in the best in Europe. What a pity that he will not be able to show that he is indeed also the best striker in the World this summer!

Disappointing Ghana-Nigeria

In Group D of the African Nations Cup two of Africa's best teams faced each other. Ghana is one of the outsiders for the title, having qualified for their first World Cup. Nigeria is eager to show that they should be in the World Cup, where they have done well before. It was therefore with great expectations that both teams opened their African Cup campaign.

Although both teams had many injured players (for Ghana, the absence of Michael Essien was notable), the game was still a big disappointment. Ghana was organised well in the start of the match, but in the second half, a simple tactical change from the Nigerian team made their organisation fall apart. There were many chances, but they were mostly the result of luck or pure lack of concentration in defense. Nigeria's winning goal came from such a situation: Ghana's defenders looked asleep when a quick free-kick in the 85th minute ended with Taiwo, who hammered the ball in from a long distance. Ghana was too defensive and lacking fantasy to answer back, although bad defending by the Nigerians almost gave them a goal.

All in all, the match was too tactical, and both teams lacked concentration. None of the teams should hope to win the cup playing like they did today.

Egypt looking strong!

The African Nations Cup started in Cairo with an opening match between the Egyptian hosts and Lybia. Not having qualified for the World Cup in Germany, the Egyptians are eager to show on their own turf, that they are still among the top African teams. And the did start very well indeed. The neighboring Lybians were hardly a match for the highly motivated Egyptians, who furthermore had a great crowd pushing behind them.

Mido, one of the best players of the Egyptian team, opened the score after a strong early pressure. The Lybians had very little to show, and Egypt won a well-deserved 3-0 victory.

The Egyptians are certainly favourites to win this group, and are also the strongest contenders for the title. However, it remains to be seen how some of the other strong teams are looking over the next few days: Nigeria, Cameroun, Ghana, Tunisia and Morocco. It is undoutfully one of the strongest African Nations Cup ever.

The Black Stars on the way!

Ghana has started its World Cup and African Nations Cup (in January) preparations with a friendly match against Saudi Arabia in Riyadh last night. Without their stars Michael Essien and Stephen Appiah, but with a returning Roma defender Samuel Kuffour, Ghana managed to pull a 1-3 victory against the Saudi's (who will also be playing in Germany next summer). The goals were scored by Italian-based strikers: Asamoah Gyan (Modena) scored two, and one was scored by Sulley Muntari (Udinese).

I have before said Ghana will be hard to defeat next year. And this shows that preparations are well underway. Next year might indeed be Ghana's year!

Germany! Ghana is coming!

Last night, I was at a concert at Accra's Independence Square, when I heard that Burkina Faso had defeated South Africa 3-1 in the African World Cup Qualifier Group 2. This meant that Ghana could qualify to the World Cup 2006 with a victory against Uganda at home in Kumasi.

I had been hoping for this moment for a while, and had been eagerly awaiting the moment Ghana would surely make it to their first World Cup ever. And this afternoon, the dream came true. Ghana defeated Uganda after a golden start, scoring 2 goals in the first twenty minutes of the match. It was obvious that the Black Stars did not want to leave anything to chance.
Ghana is now going to its first World Cup ever, and I am sure they will do well. They certainly have a team that anyone should fear.

In other groups of the African World Cup Qualifiers, things have become more tense: Ivory Coast surprisingly lost at home in Abidjan to a stubborn Cameroon team, who showed they want to qualify again. At the same time, Togo defeated Liberia, and is only a step away from qualifying. The same happens with Angola, who is being trailed by a desperate Nigerian side on second spot.

But the best is the Black Stars! I have been drinking Star beer to celebrate, and it will surely not be the last time the Ghanaians make the whole country proud!

Gambia-Ghana (U-17)

On May 22nd Gambia and Ghana were playing the final of the U-17 African Championship. They were playing in Gambia. Watching it in Ghana, I was of course supporting the Black Stars. But a very curious thing happened: In the last minute of the match, the score was 0-0 when Gambia was awarded a corner kick. As they were taking it, a spectator ran into the penalty area. Amid the confusion, Jallow Ousman emerged and scored the winning goal for Gambia. The spectator, he ran off the pitch amid the cheers and quietly watched by the security. He has not been found.
Ghanaians were understandably extremely angry, but the referee from Lesotho accepted the goal. And Gambia are U-17 champions of Africa. What do the rules say about these things!?
These are not exactly the things African football should be known about. At the same time, it is sad that Gambia, an otherwise very talented young team, have won the title in such a disgraceful way. I hope they are ashamed.

DR Congo-Ghana

In the African World Cup Qualifiers Group 2, Ghana had an all-important away game against the DR Congo. Although without two of the main "black stars", Lyon's Michael Essien and Bayern Munich's Samuel Kuffour, Ghana played a good game. It was an intense game, with many hard but fair fights, and some good tactical display, in an extremely high pace. Both teams players were extremely tired in the end!
The game ended 1-1, which is probably a better result for Ghana. They are currently third, with 8 points, behind South Africa (12) and Cape Verde (10). However, next they will have two crucial home games against Burkina Faso and Uganda, which must be won, before heading for a great encounter against Bafana Bafana.
Ghana has never made it to the World Cup. They certainly have the players to make it this time. I hope they will, and I will be here in Ghana to support them!
And just an anecdote from the game: At half time, on Ghanaian TV3, the commentator said: "And now pray for our players to win, so this will be our resurrection day gift!"
That is football-fanaticism!

Party in Accra!

The second leg of the African Confederations Cup final took place in Kumasi yesterday. Asante Kotoko had the upper hand after a 1-1 in Accra, and were set to take the title. But after a spirited fight and very exiting game, things proved differently.
Hearts of Oak came out with a much better fight than they had done in the first match. At the same time, Kotoko seemed happy to wait for Hearts to come to them, and did not attack much in front of their home crowd.
Five minutes into the second half, things seemed to go Kotoko's way, when Charles 'the terror' Taylor brought the home team ahead, to the spectacular joy of the home crowd.

But Hearts of Oak has the reputation of never giving up. In the first match they equalized in the last minute, and this time, they started attacking, while Kotoko coach Hans Dieter Schmidt, strangely brought in extra defenders.
Ten minutes before full-time, Lawrence Adjei scored the equalizer for Hearts, and the game went into a nerve-wrecking penalty shoot-out.
The players were actually excellent shooters, and the shoot-out went into the 8th kick, when Kotoko Captain Hendricks missed, and in the subsequent kick, Hearts took the trophy.

Celebrations erupted in Accra. I think many are still partying!