Late review - 2008 African Nations Cup

Egypt retained their African crown last month, beating Cameroon 1-0 in the 2008 African Nations Cup final. In doing so, the Pharaohs (nickname for the Egypt national team) confounded their critics who doubted their ability to win the tournament a second successive time. I'm one of those who didn't think Egypt could do it, & they've really proven me wrong. So they have the right to be called the best team in Africa.

Egypt started off by hammering Cameroon 4-2. Then they beat Sudan 3-0 before drawing Zambia 1-1 to finish top of their group. In the knockout stages, they narrowly defeat lively Angola 2-1 in the quarter-finals. Then in the semi-finals, they thumped tournament favourites Ivory Coast 4-1 to reach the final in impressive style. Their final opponent was Cameroon, the team that Egypt played first in the group stages. Egypt won 1-0 to become champions of Africa once again.

Their achievement is all the more impressive, considering that they did not select arguably their best & most well-known current player, Ahmed Hossam also known as Mido (formerly of Tottenham, now of Middlesbrough). The coach Hassan Shehata deserves commendation for all his hard work & dedication. According to reports, Egypt played stylish football throughout most of the tournament & deserved their success.

As for Cameroon, well, I didn't think they would have made the final, especially after the caning they got from Egypt in their first game of the tournament. But they pulled themselves together & roused themselves sufficiently to eventually get to the final, where they lost to Egypt again but this time narrowly. Good achievement to the Cameroonians, but from reports, I get the impression this young Cameroon side has less creativity than past Cameroon teams, & instead rely more on speed & strength.

What of some of the other teams? Let's start with Ghana. They were the hosts, & I tipped them to win the tournament. Their performances throughout the tournament was reasonable overall, from reports. They didn't really rip teams apart, but one got the impression Ghana were being steady & saving their big performances for the latter stages of the tournament. Instead, Ghana didn't even get to the final, due to the 1-0 loss to Cameroon in the semi-finals. Not sure what happened - was it stage fright? Perhaps Ghana missed a genuine top drawer forward that could have knocked in the goals to steer them to the trophy.

Ghana's lack of such a forward was the reason many people tipped Ivory Coast ahead of them as tournament winners. Up until the semi-finals, the talented & dangerous Ivorians showed the sort of form that justified their favourites tag. Then, it all fell apart against Egypt in the semi-finals. Perhaps Ivory Coast's undoing was the fact that they were not really tested in the matches up until the semis, & so were brutally found out by the first team that really had the weapons to cause damage. Ivory Coast also proceeded to lose 4-2 in the third-place playoff to Ghana - a match many had thought would be the final.

The tournament would have been a disappointment for quarter-finalists Nigeria & Tunisia, as well as such teams as South Africa, Senegal & Morocco, who both didn't even get past the group stages. Nigeria really let their fans down by struggling in the group stages, almost missing the knockout stages. Hosts & archrivals Ghana beat them 2-1 in the quarter-final. Losing to the host nation by a 1 goal margin in itself was nothing to be embarassed about. But the lament was in the fact that Ghana were Nigeria's biggest rivals. Perhaps the bigger lament was the underpar performances. Nigeria have lots of talent, but German coach Berti Vogts could not get the best out of them. Not surprisingly, Vogts stepped down after the tournament.

Tunisia were perhaps less disappointing than Nigeria, as they at least played reasonably well in the group stage - in fact, well enough to top the group. They were narrowly bundled out 3-2 in the quarter-finals by Cameroon, who then went on to reach the final. Tunisia then dismissed Roger Lemerre as they considered the quarter-finals not good enough. I think Lemerre was unlucky. He led Tunisia to win the 2004 African Nations Cup & took them to World Cup 2006. I would have thought being able to take Tunisia to consecutive major international tournaments was proof enough that Lemerre has the right credentials to handle a national football team. The Tunisian football fraternity obviously thought differently, & dismissing Lemerre is a sign that expectations in Tunisia are higher than in the past. Still, a quarter-final berth at the African Nations Cup is nothing to be sniffed at.

South Africa took a young, experimental side to the tournament. Perhaps in that context, their early elimination was not such a surprise. But it does mean that the South Africans have a lot of work to do ahead of the World Cup 2010, which they will be hosting. Their coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, has a big task on his plate. Still, the tournament would have given the young side some useful experience which will hopefully benefit them.

As for Senegal, I was disappointed that they went home early. I expected them to have topped their group, but this expectation was influenced by their quarter-final achievement in World Cup 2002. Obviously, the current side have a way to go to match the exploits of 2002. As for Morocco, they had a forgettable tournament. They started the tournament with a 5-1 romp of minnows Namibia, but then lost subsequently to Guinea & Ghana. They would probably have expected to beat Guinea, but they didn't & so that contributed to their demise.

The other quarter-finalists were Angola & Guinea. Angola showed that their qualification for World Cup 2006 was no fluke. They finished level on points with Tunisia, & only lost 2-1 to eventual champions Egypt in the quarter-finals. Guinea did well to accompany Ghana to the knock-out stages, but were thrashed 5-0 by Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals.

The other teams that took part in the tournament were:
Namibia - bottom of Ghana's group
Mali - third in Ivory Coast' group, finishing equal on points with Nigeria but behind on goal difference
Benin - bottom of Ivory Coast' group
Zambia - third in Egypt's group
Sudan - bottom of Egypt's group

The matches were not shown here on TV, so I couldn't see them. But congratulations to Egypt for their success. Roll on the next edition of the tournament.