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African Cup of Nations full of excitement
Comments (5)
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 | 03:44 PM ET
The biennial African Cup of Nations has to be the most under-rated international soccer tournament on the planet.
I was home sick Tuesday nursing a terrible cold, which meant instead of being tied to my desk at the office I was parked on my couch watching the tournament's quarter-final matchup between Cameroon and Tunisia.
And let me tell you something: it was one of the best games I've seen in a long time.
Tunisia trailed 2-0 but fought back to knot the score late in regulation before Stephane M'Bia scored a cracker of a goal in extra time to send the Indomitable Lions through to the semifinals.
The thrilling Cameroon-Tunisia contest came one day after hosts Ghana and Nigeria battled it out in another exciting quarter-final match, with the Black Stars advancing to the final four following a 2-1 win.
I've been very impressed with the quality of play at this tournament - much more so than last year's Copa America tournament - and a major reason why is that unlike their South American counterparts, African players care about playing in their continental championship.
Witness the difference in attitudes between players such as Michael Essien, Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba (who told their respective clubs in no uncertain terms they would not miss playing in the African Cup of Nations for anything) versus Kaka and Ronaldinho, who skipped last year's Copa America competition in Venezuela.
Kaka and Ronaldinho cited fatigue after a long club season for skipping the Copa festivities, which is hardly a legitimate excuse when you consider fatigue didn't stop them from playing in the 2006 World Cup.
By contrast Essien, Eto'o and Drogba are leaving their teams while they are in the middle of heated title races in order to represent their countries. That's commitment!
It's this kind of passion that fuels that African Cup of Nations, which, for my money, trails only the World Cup and Euro as the best international tournament - the Confederations Cup, Gold Cup and Copa America can't compare.
African soccer is often maligned as being tactically naïve, and African players are too often labelled "great athletes" who lack skill and intelligence.
Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth.
Essien, aside from his physical strength, is a skilled midfielder - one of the best in the world at his position - while Eto'o and Drogba rank among the top goal-scorers in the world.
This year's tournament in Ghana has been fantastic, and should go a long way to dispelling the myth that African soccer is not up to snuff.
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About the Author
John F. Molinaro is a reporter for CBC Sport Online whose chief love is international soccer. John served as senior editor of Sports Online's Euro 2004 website, which helped him win a CBC.ca Award of Excellence, and was the driving force behind our coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He holds an honours BA in sociology from York University and a print journalism diploma from Sheridan College, and is also the author of The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time (Stewart House, 2002).
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Comments (5)
4-4-2
Alberta
Like you John, i'm watching carefully every single game of African Cup of Nation (CAN).
I'm glad that you're talking about this event because i agree this cup is under-rated.
If i had to make a classment, i would put the World Cup obviously first,the Euro second and in third position...the CAN. Yes, the African tournament is the third most exiting in the world.
I watched those quarter-finals between cameroon and tunisia, ghana and nigeria...what beautifull games!! The intensity was amazing and the suspens could have stop your breathing...
Did you watch the games of Ivory-Coast? This team has the best skilled players(defencemen-midfield-strikers).
You're making an important point by saying that this cup is highly important for africans players who never miss any edition. Entire contries are behind those teams in africa and african stars playing in the best europeans clubs care about their national colours first.
This cup is a big party in Africa.
Also, don't forget that this continent has 53 different football contries. So to pretend any participation in the CAN you have to pass trough the qualifications games first and it's not easy . There are different groups of four teams and the first of each groups are directly qualified.The 3 best seconds of all the groups complete the qualification groups. So you can be sure that those 16 teams that play the African Cup of Nation are the best and this is why this cup is so competitive.
It's the same qualification process in Europe.
Unlike Africa and Europe, South-America has only a dozen of soccer associations.Usually the winner is known in advance : argentina(14 times) or brazil(8 times)...
African players have skills and intelligence...Every European Championship are fully of skilled and intelligent african players.Among them Drogba ( chealsea)Etoo ( barcelona) Essien( chealsea)Kanoute (sevilla)Diarra ( Madrid) Toure(arsenal)or many years ago Okocha ( PSG)Weah (ac milan)
Posted February 6, 2008 05:55 PM
4-4-2
Alberta
The main issue with African teams is the "tactical sense" . They like to have some freedom of playing like South-American players. The most part of their games are based on imagination and personal accomplishment rather than strictly collective game like Europeans teams
I wish everyone to enjoy the semi-finals tomorrow. Ivory-coast-Egypt ( remake of 2006 final won by Egypt) and Ghana-Cameroon( black stars will play with their fans in Accra but the "indomitable lions" of Cameroon are strong mentally by reputation ).
My forecast: Ivory-Coast and Cameroon will advance in Final.
Posted February 6, 2008 06:05 PM
Abdi
I didnt know that it is televised live in North America. At least in the US, it is not. However, I follow it via the internet. I wonder why Fox soccer channel or ESPN cannot show it. Or may be as you said it is under-rated?
Infact, I ll put it at par with the Euros. I may be biased as I am from Africa, though my country never qualifies for the highly competitive ACON. Some people wonder why a lot of the good soccer countries they see at ACON never qualify for the world cup, whereas the good teams in Euros almost always do. The reason is there are only 5 World cup slots for 53 countries.
African soccer is similar to South American in many ways, especially the focus on the forwards. That means there biggest weakest, like Brazil, is in the goal keeping dept. Look at Ivory Coast. They could win the world cup if only they had a quality goalkeeper!!! I am disappointed the way they lost today as their second choice goalie (that replaced the injured Barry) was horrible.
Posted February 7, 2008 09:09 PM
1234
USA
The aura that surrounds the CAN is unbelievable. I have been watching it for years, and I have got to say that it seems like it becomes more and more competitive every year. You might think you know who's going to win which game, but you'd be surprised how many upset wins the Underdogs at the CAN can pull off.
And it all goes to prove the competitive ability of African football on the international stage. Sure, you've got the powerhouse African favourites like Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, even Egypt, but there are teams like Angola who are beginning to forge a new reputation on the world stage, and it's teams that are made up of purely African talent. To watch them compete at such a fierce level every 2 years at the CAN is simply amazing.
It would be great if CBC could broadcast these games. Whether you're a football fan or not, it'll definitely make for some interesting games to watch.
Posted February 7, 2008 11:47 PM
Alex
Calgary
Those countries love and live the game with passion.That's the way it should be..For the players to represente their country is about pride and love for their homeland not so much for the money...canadian soccer needs to grow soon if we don't want to see more players living because we don't care for them.Let's get rid of the ignorance and remove all those people doing nothing good for the players other than politics to keep themself alive and sitting for ever runing all the roots associations in the country specially in the rockies...John you should write about this patetic situation.
Posted February 10, 2008 04:11 PM