The Twists And Turns Of The 34th AFCON Competition

 

 

Video: The goal that crippled the Super Eagles(Courtesy CAF_Online)

The 34^th AFCON hosted by Cote D’Ivoire carried with it some of the most dramatic moments in African football. It was a bundle of excitement, determination, and the vicissitude of fate in diverse actions of our daily lives.

It started with the confusion of the Elephants sacking their coach Jean Louis Gasset, after losing two matches whilst on the verge of exiting at the group stages from a competition they were hosting.  Their 0-4 loss to Equatorial Guinea was damning with their victors considered a far lesser football force and their most prominent players wallowing at the bottom of the lower leagues in Europe, compared to the Ivoirians who had players rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best! The situation looked crazy, with the hosts on the brink of being eliminated, spectators dried up at the venues, leaving the stadium for birds, visiting fans, AFCON officials, and cameramen.

The twists and turns of the competition saw the hosts narrowly qualify for the second round and the local spectators returned to the stadium and the tension of the knockout stages began. Most of the matches were predictable, but in the matches at Abidjan (Egypt vs Republic of Congo), (Nigeria vs Cameroon), Yamoussoukro (Senegal vs Cote d’Ivoire), and San Pedro (Morocco vs South Africa), everyone expected fireworks and indeed, the drama these matches was much. The match between hosts Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal rose to its crescendo and against bookmakers' predictions, the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire did the unexpected by beating the defending champions. It was an unexpected result; the Taranga Lions had not lost within the African continent for over two years and losing to Cote D’Ivoire, who had crawled to the second round as one of the best losers, looked unfathomable. Alas, it was about football, the game of drama! South Africa beat Morocco, Egypt lost to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria beat Cameroon.

The quarter finals had giant killers Cape Verde who had beaten Mauritania in the second round playing against South Africa in the quarter finals. It was an exhilarating match, with both sides looking equally matched and it dragged into penalties, where the South African goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams, made an everlasting statement in AFCON folklore by saving four penalties, to take his team to the semi-finals. The Elephants continued with their heroics and cut down the Mali national team in the last minute and last kick of the extra time and in another dramatic fashion. They had started to believe in themselves. The local coach Emerse Fae, had tweaked the team to play to their full strength but their initial stumbles, still made them less considered by other teams.

With their underwhelming performance at the 33^rd AFCON Competition in Cameroon and losing the FIFA World Cup in a despicable manner, Nigeria’s Super Eagles, stumbled to a draw in their first match against Equatorial Guinea and beat eventual winners, Cote D’Ivoire in the second match. They came with a large collection of brilliant players, including Victor Osimhen, the African Footballer of the Year but their style was unclear. Like Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria’s confidence as they progressed in the competition. Nigeria overcame the onslaught of South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in the semi-finals, but in the finals, against the Elephants, despite taking the lead they could not continue to soak the pressure with the Ivoirians boosted by the home crowd. It was a sad ending for the Super Eagles of Nigeria, but for the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, it was a dream come true.

 

CAF ANC2023: FIREWORKS BEGIN IN COTE D’IVOIRE

 

Today, the  13^th of January 2024, twenty-four African national teams are converged in Cote D’Ivoire for the commencement of the African Nations Football Cup tournament. It’s a culmination of over a year of rigorous planning and organization to highlight the best of African Football players to the global audience.

Two years ago, five nations (Morocco, Ghana, Algeria, Senegal, and Cameroon, represented Africa in the FIFA World Cup Competition in Qatar. Morocco surprised the world by becoming the first African nation to qualify for the semi-final stage, since the beginning of the FIFA World Cup. Over the years, the number of participating teams has increased, and so has the prize money for the participating teams and winners. The Confederation for African Football (CAF), has also signed bigger broadcast rights to further enhance the development of African football and as the competition kicks off today, planning and organization, will move from the board rooms to the football fields at the six-stadia accredited for this competition.

 

THE OPENING MATCH: COTE D’IVOIRE VS GUINEA BISSAU

This evening, Group A partners, and hosts, Cote D’Ivoire would lock horns with Guinea Bissau, at the Alassane Quattara Stadium, Abidjan, to start off the 34^th African Nations Cup Competition. Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea are the other teams in group A and they’d play the second match of the competition tomorrow afternoon. On paper, this group has strong teams with each having a fair chance of qualification. Cote D’Ivoire, looks like a team in transition, but could also ride on an overwhelming home support to progress to the next stage. They have won the competition in the past(1992, 2015) and once boasted of players such as Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Salomon Kalou, et al. Presently, the team is short of such a caliber of stars. Their opponents, Guinea Bissau can be rightly categorized as one of Africa’s rising football nations enjoying the liberalization of international transfers through the Bosman Ruling. They have most of their players in the Portuguese league and have sprung some surprises in the recent past. It’s not their first participation at the African Nations Cup Competition.

The current dynamics of football make it difficult to predict a lesser opportunity for qualification for Guinea Bissau or any other team. A considerable amount of players participating in the competition ply their trade in the European leagues and the margins of their exposure and experience are very little. The beauty of this competition is its capability to showcase several hidden African football talents and inspire others in various local leagues across Africa. Football has become a veritable profession that has rescued several poor families in Africa from hunger, poverty, and the ineptitude of diverse African governments whose focus on building a workable social structure to support the people, has been underwhelming.

Beyond the razmatazzz of the sounds of vuvuzelas, the screaming of football fans, the dancing of supporters, and other excitements the football brings, the time has come for African football leagues to begin to make deliberate efforts towards attracting players from other continents and/or even their own kith and kin leaving Europe to develop their local leagues. The beauty of the African geographical landscape, its fauna, and flora must be used to attract others to build stronger football leagues in different African states. It is difficult but possible!