Tuesday, February 2, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Africa Cup of Nations 2010: A Tournament Best Forgotten?” plus 1 more

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Africa Cup of Nations 2010: A Tournament Best Forgotten?” plus 1 more

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Africa Cup of Nations 2010: A Tournament Best Forgotten?

Posted: 01 Feb 2010 11:40 AM PST

Angola 2010 AfconThe 2010 Africa Cup of Nations is over. Though I usually love the tournament, I won’t be remembering this edition fondly. For several reasons.

First and foremost, Angola 2010 will mostly be remembered for the attack on the Togo team bus, in which three people died and many more thought they were going to die.We can blame the tournament organizers for putting games in Cabinda. We can maybe blame the Togolese football authorities for making less than sensible travel plans. Mostly I blame the men that did the actual shooting. But following the attack, the Confederation of African Football handled the whole thing with a confusing mix of insanity and heartlessness. First CAF rejected the Togo team’s request to rejoin the tournament after briefly returning home, and more recently CAF banned Togo from competing at the 2012 and 2014 Africa Cup of Nations.

So the football was understandably overshadowed by the tragedy. But the football itself wasn’t that great either. Certainly not as good as the previous tournament in 2008. There were a few entertaining games of course. The opening 4-4 draw between Angola and Mali and Algeria’s 3-2 win over Cote d’Ivoire in the quarter-final are the standouts. But unfortunately my six enduring football memories of Angola 2010 will be:

1. Bad goalkeeping.
It had become a lazy and borderline racist stereotype that African goalkeepers were a bit dodgy. The likes of Carlos Kameni and Essam al-Hadary had mostly dispelled that myth, but some of the comedy errors in Angola were staggering. Mozambique keeper Kapango’s flip fail vs Benin, Zambia keeper Kennedy Mweene’s inability to deal with a tame, bouncing cross vs Cameroon are the two worst examples. I’d still argue that most African goalkeepers are perfectly fine. I just won’t be using Angola 2010 as evidence.

2. Empty stadiums
Not completely empty of course. But pretty close. The attendance and atmosphere seemed to swell in the last 30 minutes or so of every game, presumably because they let people in for free towards the end. Maybe a more sensible pricing strategy would have enticed these people in from the start.

3. Group stage finales ruined by head-to-head tie-breaker system.
Group D gets a pass for the Cameroon 2-2 Tunisia game. But the finales of Groups A, B and C were almost non-events. Mostly because too many teams knew what they needed to do, thanks to Africa Cup of Nations 2010 using the head-to-head rule as first tie-breaker, and not goal difference. The result was that Algeria could get out of Group A by scoring only one goal, and playing out that brain-destroying 0-0 draw with Angola while Mali were wasting their time beating Malawi 3-1.

4. Underwhelming performances from big names
Michael Essien, Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o were among the big names we were looking forward to seeing in Angola. Essien went home injured after 45 minutes, Drogba scored one in three before going home, while Cameroon boss Paul Le Guen inexplicably asked Samuel Eto’o to spend most of his time playing either wide left or behind the strikers.

5. None of the World Cup teams looked convincing
If this is how Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria perform in tournaments in 2010, then we shouldn’t expect much from them at World Cup 2010. Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire especially. The Indomitable Lions spent the tournament chopping and changing personnel, while The Elephants choked when it mattered. We might have to stop making them pre-tournament favourites from here on out. Ghana and Nigeria were a little better, but both went far without ever clicking or impressing. The only upside is that Ghana gave valuable tournament experience to some talented youngsters. Otherwise, let’s just hope South Africa are a much better team than we’ve been led to believe.

6. Egypt aren’t going to the World Cup
The Pharaohs were far and away the best team in Angola. They were the only consistent team. The only team that looked like they had a plan, and knew how to make it happen. They also provided many of the best moments: The Gedo super sub phenomenon, Ahmed Hassan redeeming his own goal with a long range striker on his 170th international appearance. So why is this a bad thing? Because after winning their third consecutive Africa Cup of Nations trophy (2006, 2008, 2010) they are demonstrably the best football team in Africa, or at the very least the best tournament team. Which makes it all the more depressing that Egypt won’t be at World Cup 2010.

Can anyone offer a more positive take on Angola 2010?

Gedo Confirmed as World’s Greatest Super Sub as Egypt Win Africa Cup of Nations 2010

Posted: 01 Feb 2010 07:27 AM PST

Egypt won the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations yesterday, beating Ghana 1-0 in the final with the above 85th minute goal form Mohamed Nagy, a.k.a Gedo, a.k.a the world’s greatest super sub. Why is the 25 year old Al-Ittihad Al-Sakndary player the world’s greatest super sub? Here’s why:

Gedo didn’t start any of Egypt’s six games at Angola 2010, and yet somehow finished the tournament as top scorer with five goals. To come off the bench and score once is impressive. To do it five times, including the only goal in the final, is something else. So has he earned a spot in the first XI now?

- For photos of Egyptian players celebrating, and video of Egyptian fans celebrating around the world, visit Tamim at the Egypt blog.
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Hidden gems on display in Super Bowl 44

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Monday, February 1, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: Liveblog: African Cup of Nations Final, Ghana vs. Egypt

World Cup 2010 Blog: Liveblog: African Cup of Nations Final, Ghana vs. Egypt

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Liveblog: African Cup of Nations Final, Ghana vs. Egypt

Posted: 31 Jan 2010 07:29 AM PST

andre_ayewhassan


Liveblog today of the African Cup of Nations Final — Ghana vs. Egypt. I’ll be joined here by Gary from the Ghana blog, and possibly by Tamim from the Egypt blog as well. We’re hoping for a fun match.


For more, plus post-match commentary, be sure to check out our Ghana blog and our Egypt blog
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Players give early insight on Super Bowl 44

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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Kansas among rising teams after OT win over K-State

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Saturday, January 30, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Africa Cup of Nations 2010 Final: Egypt vs Ghana, Pick Your Winner.” plus 1 more

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Africa Cup of Nations 2010 Final: Egypt vs Ghana, Pick Your Winner.” plus 1 more

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Africa Cup of Nations 2010 Final: Egypt vs Ghana, Pick Your Winner.

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 01:40 PM PST

African-Cup-of-Nations-Trophy_2386276No shortage of drama in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals was there? Not to mention red cards. But that’s all in the past. Time to focus on the future. There’s the third place playoff between Nigeria and Algeria on Saturday, but the big event is Sunday. Ghana vs Egypt in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations final.

I’m not going to type up a detailed preview here. To read someone who knows – and I mean really knows – about these two teams, visit Gary at the Ghana blog and Tamim at the Egypt blog. Those guys know their business.

My only question: Who do you think will win?

It’s the youth of Ghana (who are without Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari or Stephen Appiah, but have young hotshots like Dede Ayew and Kwadwo Asamoah) or the experience and teamwork of Egypt, who may not be going to the World Cup, but are looking to make it three Africa Cup of Nations wins in a row.

The Africa Cup of Nations final is Sunday, January 31st, with kickoff at 5pm in Luanda. That’s also 5pm CET, 4pm in the UK, 11am US Eastern time and 8am US Pacific time. We’ll be LiveBlogging the game here on WorldCupBlog.

If you’re in the UK, the game is live on BBC Two. If you’re in the USA, then you can watch online – very legally – with MyAfricanFootball.com. Click below for details.

CAN2010-Final-Ghana-Egypt

If you have the info on how to watch elsewhere, please share below in the comments.

German World Cup Winners Training Hard For Something That Will Happen in 2010

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 08:10 AM PST


This looks like viral marketing done right. It’s “The Return of the Legends”, with great German players of the past “secretly” filmed training hard, preparing for some sort of return. I see 1954 World Cup winner Horst Eckel, 1974 World Cup winning goalkeeper Sepp Maier, and multiple members of the 1990 World Cup winning squad. I’m still scared of Andi Brehme’s left foot.

The video looks to be a promotional for the equally mysterious Meister vs Meister website, but I like to think – as Luke from Bayern Offside suggested when he emailed this to me – that these guys are Jogi Löw’s Plan B for the World Cup 2010 campaign.


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