±«Óătv

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Great rundown for someone who's not been able to catch many of the games.

I'm intrigued by the mention of the violence after a CAF champions league match and the internet comes up blank with after a search. Anybody have any information on this?

Good preview to the quarter-finals, which sure do promise to be fiery!

However, I'd like to correct a statistic that has been wrongly bandied around the ±«Óătv: Egypt are now unbeaten in 16 CAN matches, as opposed to 15 as you claim! The record began with a 0-0 draw against Cameroon in the 1st round of the 2004 CAN in Tunisia, culminating with the routine 2-0 win over Benin on Wednesday night in this year's tournament.

Here's hoping for match no. 17 on Monday!

Piers,
Nice article but i dont agree with you on the line u said "....the entertaining Chipolopolo face an ever-improving Nigeria".

Nigeria hasn't been improving! If u ask the Nigerians, they will tell you that Nigeria's football performance has been going down over the years. They are not the old super eagles we used to know.

I think Nigeria have played well. Even in the egypt defeat they moved the ball well. Might not be classic super eagles but much better than the berti vogts 2008 side which was woeful.

Cameroon have been the biggest dissapointment, look they've never played together, and geremi and Song Snr are on their last legs so the defence lacks a lot of pace. They need to move on and play younger defenders.

But there should be some good games on the quarters.

Egypt have been consistent and played well, they are the favourites.

I will not be surprised to see Algeria in the final. I think that they are going to play very patiently and with a lot of cold steely European style desciplene for the rest of the tournament. However, I would not want Algeria to be in the final, for the simple reason that this team represents very little of Algeria and Africa. Algeria is cutting corners by fielding a team that consists mainly of European born and raised players. They represent the footballing culture of the countries that they come from, not the development and work that is done in the Algerian grassroot football and league.
African football should develop from the ground up, not the other way round. For that reason, I hope that Egypt does well. It is no surprise that Egypt has done well in Africa. This should serve as an example for all other countries on the continent. Develop football at home, work on your leagues. If you can produce a truly top calss player and export him, that is a bonus. But you have got to be able to put out a team that does well in every major tounament you take part in. A team with 2 or 3 superstars and 8 or 9 below average players is hardly a team. Benin was a typical example of this..

I forsee a copper bullet shooting down an eagle on Monday. Period!!!! As for Amodu shuaibu, he can kiss his Job goodbye!

The opening paragraph concerning the Ghanaian journo. Read the line as...............

Losing his wallet in the souffle.

Made me laugh anyway. As for the competition I don't care as the nation I put money on, Gabon, fell at the first hurdle.

"Yet the Ghana delegation's anger was so great they then revealed how they have protested to the Confederation of African Football after a Black Stars fan, one of those who paints himself head-to-toe in national colours while 'wearing' a pot atop his head, had been so badly beaten by security forces following Tuesday's draw against Burkina Faso that he had since been hospitalised."
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1-The guy is NOT hospitalised! Get your facts right.
2-Been with him and doesn't even look "badly beaten".
3-Considering higher security concerns, the guy probably called for it, after stubbornly disobeying police efforts to prevent him from crossing the barrier aimed to protect diplomatic officials from getting attacked by any crazed lunatic with personal or whatever issues.

4-This is Angola! One fact: Government officials don't usually mingle with common people. So, no matter who you are, stay in your lane.
5-And this is not intimidating, it's a way of live in a society scarred by over three decades of civil war and whose newborn peace and "democracy" is allowing few but clumsy steps towards political and economic stability.
6-It's been slightly over seven years now since it all ended. As an Angolan, despite some setbacks I'm proud of what we could achieve so far. So I'd rather stay in my lane!
7-Don't quite agree with the way you portray us in your ±«Óătv news & blogs!

@ Doritos_Ramos, your over elaborated desire for peace, encourages the treatment of another human being as a second class citizen by another human being. Politicians come and go. They should mix and mingle. You make me ashamed to be a Southern African. We have seen worse than Angola's Civil War. Whats so special about it?

Now back to football.

When AFCON 10 started, I had a list of players I expected to shine, Im dissapointed to say, Mantorras has not been played, Tico-Tico went home empty handed and Christopher Katongo has been largely anonymous.

However I have been proved right by other players I picked. The ageless Egyptians Essam El Hadary and Ahmed Hassan are ticking the right boxes. Flavio seems to defy his size, Alex Song has been consistent, Joseph Kamwendo played his heart out before bowing out with the Flames and Yaya Toure and Gervinho are probably the reason why Ivory Coast are where they are today.

There has been several emerging stars as well, as is custom with any AFCON edition.(remember Amr Zaki in Cairo 06? Jean Makoun in 08?) Notably, Benin's Stephan Sessagnon, Pitroipa of Burkina Faso, Angola's Gilberto and Mabbina, Saka Tienne of the Ivory Coast and although nearer to 30, Richard Kingson doesnt look like a player who has rarely played for his club. Egypt always surprises us with a rising star each year. Move over Amr Zaki, enter Mohammed Gedo. Rainsford Kalaba almost single handedly carried Zambia to the quaters which he will sit out due to a suspension and 16 year old Zambian left back, Mbola, with 20 caps already, hasnt gone unnoticed.Tunisia's 22 year old Armine Chermiti has a bright future too.

Naturally, I normally refrain from naming the so called "stars" of the EPL as dead cert success stories at AFCON for the simple reason that This Is Africa. Albeight under very unfortunate circumstances, Adebayor never kicked a ball. Essien managed a game and half, Drogba and Eto'o have a goal apiece and have been shadows of their former selves. I cant even start on the Nigerian team, clueless coach, injured stars and an over-aged Nwanko Kanu. Like i said, This is Africa, its a whole different ball game.

My money is still on the Egyptians, with at least one of the smaller sides (Angola and Zambia) reaching the final. Remember the last time AFCON was held in Southern Africa, the hosts won it, so geography is on the two countries' side. To be honest, I dislike the West African Teams.

ANORAK: Did you know that Southern Africa has only won the African Footballer of the Year ONCE since it began? Kalusha "King Kalu" Bwalya won it for Zambia in 1988.

If you believe the rumours that Nigeria's players tend to lie about there age then its no surprise that as a nation we are failing to produce quality players. Were in desperate need of a creative midfielder. I used to be highly critical of Mikel Obi (mainly down for my disbelief in the way he 'left' united) but he has played better than i thought he would in that role. We are still lacking in that department. If we can get past Zambia and hopefully have the chance to expose the lack of pace in Cameroons defence we will be in the final. As Nigerians we should back the lads they need our support. If we cant win this one with the favourable draw it will have massive implications to the structure of our game.

I think it would be unfortunate if the Nigerian coach was going to lose his job if the team lost to Zambia. Zambia are actually a good team and even though they are not going to the World Cup they are quite capable of downing the Super Eagles.

I think it would wiser to stay with the coach and work out what happened as Nigeria prepares for South Africa - the result shouldn't matter that much I think.

As for Egypt and Cameroon - I think Egypt are going to be victorious once again. Cameroon have been very disappointing so far and unless they can turn things around pretty quickly they could be packing their bags before the semis.

@tgtaxi:
1-Politicians SHOULD just mingle, but they usually don't do it right now in Angola.
2-We're just more realistic to acknowledge it.
3-What's special about Angola's nearly 4 decade war is that it made us Angolans realise we won nothing with it. We had a net loss on infrastrature, a U-turn in agricultural and industrial development... in short, an economic chaos.
4-Even we are netting in just "a little" from our 7 year old peace, we realise that LITTLE is still greater than NOTHING, and much better than a NEGATIVE.
5-Living with the positive knowledge of where I stand in my society and being able to contribute as best I can is better than dying of a bullet or of hunger at a rate no other SADC country experienced.
6-No Angolan, and I mean ANGOLAN, is willing to the bush or put his skin on the line for the sake of the International Charts for Human Rights or whatsoever. We don't feel violated being in our lane.
7-If you come here, just be legal, obey authority, do your thing (the Police officers are there just to do theirs, and it includes beating you up or shoot you if needs be, in order to neutralise you. They are the State's rightful mean to maintain law and order).
8-Everyone is sacredly emotional and sensitive over Security right now, so if you cross that thin line, there's a much higher probability of you getting whiped. I remember about a Brazilian guy who was accidentally shot by in UK by officers who confused him with a terrorist. Sometimes it may be too late to yell about human rights and equality.

Absolutely loving Nigeria's continued "underdog" status. Third ±«Óătv preview I've read and they still manage nothing more than a sentence. I expect that they will "unimpressively" beat Zambia to progress - setting up a huge derby game with Ghana or a big game against the hosts. I would go so far as to say that Nigeria's fate rests on Obi Mikel's shoulders - he's the guy that's been charged with filling an "Okocha" sized hole in midfield. In the first game we saw the Chelsea defensive midfielder edition that passed well but didn't create much. In the second game he got into a bit of a rhythm and passed much better. If we see an improving second game Mikel throughout the rest of the tournament Nigeria will reach the final.

15.

'4-Even we are netting in just "a little" from our 7 year old peace, we realise that LITTLE is still greater than NOTHING, and much better than a NEGATIVE.'

So what you are saying is, it took Angolans four decades and '7 years of peace' to realise that a positive is greater than that of a negative?

I think CAF needs to start taking these allegations of hostile hosts more seriously. Across all CAF's competitions, these allegations keep cropping up. There's no smoke without a fire, you know.

On the pitch, I'm tired of all these noise about Nigerian Super Chickens and their Coach. This Nigerian team is certainly not up to the standards of the '94 team nor the Olympic winning side of 96. And most of the players will not even make it to the Ivorien bench. I hope the chickens fail to fly like the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun failed to roar in Algiers 90. So that like Cameroun did in Italia 90, the Nigerians may suprise the world. If I'm Nigeria's coach, I can win the world cup. Yes we can!

Back to this Nations Cup, I'm disappointed with Cameroun. They lack imagination in the final third. I think Eto should drop back directly behind the strikers to provide that imagination.

The good thing with this competition is that all 5 teams going to the world cup are in still around even if Algeria survived controversially. Ivory Coast should be careful, they were favourites 2 years ago but were well beaten by Egypt. They need to be professional to win. Opportunity comes but once.

I can bet my annual salary that Egypt will not win this cup.

@Colin_Mfc: Not bein from an English speaking country my difficulties in writing the language may not come as a surprise. But still I think you need to upgrade you reading and interpetation skills.
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Viva o Futebol, Viva Angola!!!

Zambia will easily defeat Nigeria looking at the dedication and performance of the team against other big teams like Cameroon and Tunisia. Though Nigeria has its historical prowess as a big Footballing team, history is past and we are looking at future prospecting big teams, which Zambia is one such a big up coming football team.

Ghana is not at full strentgh, they are missing more than 7 of their star players and have to rely on the youthful U20. But African cup competition is not U20 competition and they got whipped by the more experienced Ivory Coast. Now, with Angola, one can't be so sure which direction this match is going to go. The Ghanaian youth are giving a good account of themselves, they can upset Angola. My favourite for this tounament is Egypt.

@ Dorito_Ramos

I hear you. My main question was, why do you talk as if Angola is the only African country to have had a devastating civil war? Thats common in Africa, nothing special. Doesnt make politicians Gods and I do not believe in lanes. Life is not olympic running. No human being is superior than the other. Get that inferiority complex out of your head.

Piers

Just wanted to thank you....twice!

Firstly for some great coverage from Angola. With so little of the tournament being shown on TV, it's great to have some news and views to keep us all posted.

Secondly, thanks for your kind link to my Angolan piri piri recipe. Very much appreciated - hope some of your readers are enjoying it this evening! Plan to have many more recipes loaded onto the web site (www.throwafootballparty.com) in time for next weekend's final.

Just to requote myself, Drogba has been crap in this tournament.

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Hi Piers,
Shame your favourites got knocked-out already. I mean the Ivory Coast (every western media's darlings).

Shame how such a talented group of players can never seem to concentrate on the football on the field.

Ivory Coast = Finalists 2006, Semi-finalists 2008, quarter finalists 2010,...group phase elimination in 2012?

They remind me of the steady decline of South Africa: Champions 96, finalists 98, semi finalists 2000, quater-finalists 2002&2004, group phase 2006,bottom of group 2008, and failure to qualify 2010.

Now, they (Ivorians) know they are not super-heroes (as western media let them believe)!Hope they would focus on real football for a proper display at the World Cup.

They can complain about the Ref's decisions (i.e Kolo's goal was valid) but Algeria were miles ahead of them in quality and deserved to win.

Who between Cameroon and Egypt?

It seems the general view is that the Pharoahs will make it because they won their three group games and "impressed".

A bit of history to put things in context.

In 2006 Cameroon came into the Nations Cup after missing out on a World Cup spot by hair's breadth. They played magical football in the group phase beating Angola (3-1), Togo (2-0), and DR Congo (2-0). Then they got knocked out by the Ivory Coast at the quarter-finals.

Did you notice how similar the results and context are with Egypt today? Failure to qualify to World Cup; breeze through group games: Nigeria (3-1), v Mozambique (2-0), v Benin (2-0)...what next...?

The final is the Indomitable Lions vs The Chipolopolo. The Eagles are not good enough to beat the Chipolopolo and the Indomitable Lions always rise to the occasion when it matters.

Dorito_Ramos, You need to get rid of that old dictator and his grand daughter as wife. He has been there for too long. We Africans are tired of these selfish idiots who have been there forever and don't want to give others the chance to bring peace and democracy. With a democratic government in place, that Ghanian supporter would have never been treated like that.

Stop supporting these dictators and blaming the media.

@ Johnny I have been trying to knock sense into Ramos's head. Thanks for elaborating further. He thinks being whipped into lane is the way to go and Police Brutality is a shining example of "little Peace". It is that kind of mentality that the selfish African Idiots instill in people like him. The Western media goes a long way to expose this and they are labelled as haters. Lots of Angolans like him believe their war was the "worst" and seem to enjoy carrying it as a badge of honour.

@ Leo Moto, i will mark your words. 1 thing though, Cameroon is not Egypt.

@Piers: Do you close details events that led to the supporter’s whipping?
Some Police officers here do understand English, OK! Besides, they are trained to do what they are supposed to do properly, but some may still come short and make mistakes. In the same way, everyone is educated and instructed to behave properly, but some may still be found acting in a less socially correct way.
In Short, when questioning the officer's behaviour, have you for once shown here or somewhere else a more impartial approach by knowing exactly what happened then and there???
Like I said earlier, get your facts right! I can't be a source here or else my comments will take defamatory tuist.

@Piers: I mean, do yu have close, detailed info?

@Johnny and tgtaxi: You sound to be very experience in wars! But my guess is that it's in a spectator like point of view.
Why don’t you two join up to form the AXIS OF SANCTITY aimed at planting democracy, equality and more importantly sensational media worship in the World over at once, and maintain it FOREVER?
You dictator sniffing abilities are at their sharpest right now. Manufacturing another Iraq wouldn't be that hard, so don't blow it!

I'm just saying that a lot international fiascos do occur because of some outstretched assumptions rather than facts. And by eagerly fantasizing about a peaceful and all democratic world at once, the same people who accuse others of dictatorship may do worse things.
You obviously learn little from History.

@Dorito_Ramos: If that supporter wasn't "Molested" it wouldn't have been reported. the point here is, something bad happened and it REALLY did add black spot to what would have otherwise been a lovely AFCON (forget about the Kabinda issue). All the same i believe Piers have every right to report or express his view. See!! you are actually doing the same --- the beauty of healthy exchanges --- democracy.

Any way how do you feel about Angola's defeat to Ghana?

Opinions reflect from our point of views… they are based on info, our senses and sense of judgment.
The info we get may be too little, too much or too partial for that matter. Our senses, well our 5 senses can also play some biasing tricks on us sometimes. Finally, our sense of judgment, the most volatile of the three I guess, depending on unreliable things like personal or collective interests, political and religious views, sexual orientation, moods swings, suffering, torture, etc, etc…
I think we should never assume we’re totally correct every time. With those traps I mentioned, there’s always a risk of a righteous, divinely correct person to at a time be wrong.
That’s why, before forming the final product… the OPINION, it’s wise to:
a) Evaluate our source of info;
b) Carefully assess what we see, hear or feel;
and
c) Make a self evaluation to check if we’re the right person to make a judgment.
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Footballwise, I'm particularly disappointed with our poor finishing yesterday. But overall proud and surprised with the performances of our Palancas Negras.
Ghanaians were cunning yesterday, it went right for them, but they'll need the double amount of luck in the semis.

and @Charles: I didn’t specially like the “black spot” analogy or metaphor. But I wouldn’t elaborate much on this, lest my comment gets failed by the mods. Feel some kind of "unfreedom" in here.
Cheers!

Yeah Cote d'Ivoire is the favorite.. Shame on the pundits.... Wonder on what ground these pundits usually make such predictions.... It looks like they do not take into considerations several criteria like Alinov and his Mathematical Model....

Anyway here are my predictions

SEMI:

Ghana vs. Zambia
Algeria vs. Cameroon

FINAL:

Cameroon vs. Zambia

Winner: Cameroon ==> Fifth ACoN title.

#6 fabulous reds, i totally agree with you on developing local african football, but to say that those players dont really represent africa and algeria i dont agree! you should go to the street of paris, marseille,lyon, to see how these guys and "north african kids specialy and africans in general" have been brought up. they really do have algeria in their hearts plus most of them always spent their summer holidays in algeria since they were kids! now coming to developing african players i think its only egypt really who's still doing it, cos most of the top talent around the world including africa are being snapped up at a very young age "toure's, essien, drogba,mikel et al" by the top teams! wich in away they too are european product too they came to europe at a very young age! and if african football is where it is today its because of those top clubs that are helping these talents and helping and giving africa top players as eto and the rest! so me personaly i cant complain! peace

Nigeria would surely wobble and fumble into the finals.I hope to see Egypt vs Nigeria (2) reloaded.
In the first Match against Egypt,Taiye Taiwo caused us a lot of problems at the back and Yakubu Aiyegbeni was useless up front.After the match ,the Super Eagles lost confidence.The first 25minutes against Egypt was very typical of a Nigerian side
For some clandestine reasons,Amodu still fields in Yakubu.What a tactless coach!!!!!!

Kenneth a man who has qualified Nigeria for two world cups and has reached the semifinal of the AFCON for a second time cannot be tactless. U might not like his strategy but it is getting him results. If he wins the trophy with this strategy you must seal your lips. Nigeria sides have been very indisciplined in the last three tournaments going out on flimpmsy goals. If boring an defensive wins us the title so be it. I bet u in Egypt and Algeria nobody will complain as long as they win with disciplined football. Brazil won its first world cup in 24 years (after 1970) by being boring and disiplined. Flamboyant Ivory Coast and Cameroon are out because they were indisciplined. Nobody remembers how u won, No prizes for second place.

The Nigeria Zambia game must have been a huge embarrassment to many Nigerians. The eagles are a bunch of average and below average players with one or two good heads.

It's so sad to hear Nigerians accept mediocrity and praise it. It's not just about the coach, but the players... the players... the players!!!!

Can someone sing a lamentation for this crop of eagles that glut in their qualification to the world cup? I wish them safe flight and smooth landing.

@Quitus,

Yes Amodu qualified for the WC 2 times now. . .but on careful analysis ,is this down to his technical depth or from the abundance of talent on offer?

The large pool of good players still exists ,but the quality of play is currently nothing to write home about. So who do we blame? Your guess is as good as mine.
The Zambians ,but for their inexperience should have ripped Nigeria apart.

Lets wait & see what the Ghana game has to offer.

Mediocrity is Ivory Coast with supposedely more talent than Nigeria getting knocked out to expat Algerians in their first AFCON in Africa. Nigeria is not mediocre We have an imbalance of talent/coaching which can be fine tuned to deliver better results. If you have ever been an athlete you will understand that chemistry in team sports is critical to success and not necessarily just talent or coaching issues. So called talented teams failed to win Euro 2004. However a determined and commited Greek Team carried home the trophy even though their playing style looked "mediocre." If these boys play with commitment and passion their so called "mediocrity" will carry them to the Cup.

@Johnny and Al,

What did I tell you guys about Cameroun? Where is Cameroun? He that is down, needs fear no fall. Pride, pride, pride even when Cameroun is not a good team, exposed cameroun and they failed woefully. Nigeria is as bad as Cameroun, but mother-luck is seeing Nigeria beyond our imagination.

As a Nigerian, I am not happy with our winning when every other team has played better than Nigeria. The lucky wins of the Nigerian team will only give room for keeping the lucky but inept Coach Amodu Shaibu in charge.

Nigeria needs the Zambian coach to help Nigeria back to the Okocha era.

Hahahaha ! The Zambian coach himself seems to be selling himself really well .

Fact file on Amodu's Ineptitude
1. He puts Taiye in the wrong position .It is a well known fact that this guy has huge defensive lapses.Why must Amodu copy the style adopted by Marsielle?Does Amodu lack creativity?Give Taiye the No 11 position.Unfortunately ,Amodu is not a pace setter,he is a copy cat.That is why he is a bad coach.

2.There are numerous players capable of playing the No''7'' position in the national team
a. Obasi
b. Odemwengiwe
c. Nsofor
d. Ikechukwu Uche (Who is out injured)

Amodu should ask himself ''who is the best in this position''?Amodu should Stop putting players in wrong places.It spoils their individual game in particular and that of the team in general.Put the best player in the best position and stop experimenting with them.For example he made odemwengie run around the field for foolish reasons in the match against Zambia,until he became tired.What is the idea behind Yusuf playing the No 7 position and thereby wasting a flurry of chances?

3.What role should Kalu Uche play?This guy is the best attacking midfielder currently in Angola,For some clandestine reason,Amodu decided to put him in front of Aiyegebeni in the match against Benin or so.How can you put a striker behind a supporting striker?

4.Allow Mikel play defensive football ,it is obvious he can't play as an attacking midfielder.You left the likes of Rabiu,Lukman at home.It's your fault

5.It is obvious kanu Nwankwo,emenaro and Martins are far better than Aiyegbeni.What reason does he have to Field in Aiyegeni,who has shown that he is consistently inconsistent.

6.His substitution shows how tactless he is,Imagine replacing Etuhu with Ayila.OMG

I believe it was 4 years ago, DR Congo, Guinea I know had advanced, I think Senegal was very good too along with the Ivorians, Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt. This one is a sleepy tournament though Algeria's bounce back captured a lot of hearts.