Africa Cup Of Nations: The quarterfinals

The teams which emerged from the group stages were those most of the experts expected to end up there. With two surpises. Guinea (0-5 against the Ivory Coast)and Angola (1-2 against Egypt) upset the continent in their group matches and although both of them crashed out of the tournament in their respective quarterfinal matches they left a wonderful impression with me. It's good to see that the hosts went through though. Ghana (2-1 against Nigeria) have always been my favourite team in Africa, especially because of their players who played in Germany. And when they show the crowd and you can see Anthony Baffoe sitting there it just feels good.
It's a shame they have to cope with such conditions though. The pitch doesn't seem to be in best shape on all grounds. Nonetheless the games have been very exciting so far. Where in European football most of the matches on an international level seem to be frozen in tactics in Africe it's just do or die. The players make the game very fast and there is a constant change in direction. Adding up to that are wonderful goals, especially from long distance shots. The equalizer in the Egypt vs Angola match was a stunner.

Right now it's Cameroon vs Tunesia and the untamable lions are up 1-0 (Eto'o, who else).

Africa Cup Of Nations 2008: Opening match Ghana vs Guinea

I have been following the African Cup Of Nations for quite some time now. This has come because of extended coverage on German television, all thanks to Eurosport who are covering the tournament very well over the past few years. My first experience with African football was on another channel though. It must have been in 1992 or 1993 when Ghana was playing the final against the Ivory Coast. Not really a thrilling match concerning the way both teams played, but the excitement kept on rising with each minute until they had to go into a penalty shoot out. It took all 11 players of each team to get a decision and in the end the Ivory Coast defeated Ghana 13-12 or something along those lines.
This was the time when players from Ghana were very popular in the German Bundesliga. My favourite player at that time was Anthony Baffoe who once played for Fortuna Cologne and then moved on to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf and other teams in other countries. Other great players were Tony Yeboah or Abedi Pélé. Still Ghana never really made it big when I was watching the African Cup Of Nations.

So now they have high hopes on the "Black Stars" in Ghana since they are hosting the tournament this year. The topics before the tournament have been the same as in every year. Too many players had to be released from their club duties, mostly players from the French Ligue Une and the English Premier League (~40 players). The German Bundesliga had to let a little over 10 players leave for Africa with Hans Sarpei another former player of Fortuna Cologne playing in the opening match for Ghana against Guinea (Group A).
This was a typical African football match with lots of chances, some rather brutal fouls and some strange decisions by the referee. The pitch was also rather questionable, the ball wasn't really rolling and instead was slowed down by the grass which had grown too long. Ghana hit the post three times in the first half and also had other great chances, Guinea were sitting in the defense and waiting for their chance. After the break a questionable penalty was rewarded to Ghana and they were up 1-0 (Asamoah Gyan 55'). 10 minutes later Guinea equalized after a corner kick. The Ghanaian goalkeeper looked rather unlucky (Oumar Kalabane 65'). Only a minute from the final whistle Portsmouth striker Sulley Ali Muntari let out a screamer and scored the winner for Ghana (90').
This was a great appetizer for the things to come over the next few weeks. Tomorrow's matches will be Namibia vs Marocco (Group A), Nigeria vs Ivory Coast and Mali vs Benin (both Group B). A I am especially looking forward to the confrontation between the two African heavyweights Nigeria and Ivory Coast. This was supposed to also be a meeting between two German coaches but unfortunately Ivory Coast coach Uli Stielike had to pull out of competition because his son became seriously ill. So it will be former Germany and Scotland coach Berti Vogts standing on the sidelines for Nigeria tomorrow.