CAN 2010: Review

The curtains have fallen on the latest installment of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. It was a tournament where sadly the attack on the Togo national team that left 2 dead has overshadowed the football. Frankly the caliber of football on display throughout CAN 2010 left a lot to be desired. However one team did fit the bill, Egypt. The Pharaohs constantly entertained throughout their successful title defending campaign. Egypt managed to finish off with a host of records and achievements.

a) It was a 3rd successive win for Egypt, a feat that was never achieved in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations.

b) This was a 7th Cup win for the Pharaohs, three clear of their nearest rivals Cameroon and Ghana

c) Egypt have stretch their undefeated record in the competition to 19 games spanning from 2004 ( a 0-0 draw with Cameroon in Tunisia) till the 1-0 defeat of Ghana in Angola 2010

d) Egypt have the joint record (with Ghana) of participating in the Final game of the competition. Both Nations have played 8 finals.

e) Egypt hold the record for most Africa Cup of Nations appearances.

f) Egypt have scored more goals in the CAN than any other nations

g) Egypt have scored the most goals in Angola 2010, 15 goals. Tying their previous record in Ghana 2008

Individually Egypt had a lot to show for as well:

a) Best Player of the Tournament was awarded to Egypt Captain Ahmed Hassan

b) Goal Keeper of the Tournament was awarded to Egypt Shot Stopper Essam Al Hadary

c) Top Scorer of Angola 2010 was Mohamed Naggy "Geddo" with 5 goals to his name.

d) Hassan Shehata became the first ever coach to win 3 successive Cup of Nations.

e) Geddo became the first ever tournament top scorer to win the award off the bench, failing to start a single game in the competition.

f) Ahmed Hassan became the most capped player in Egypt's history surpassing the legendary Hossam Hassan with 172 Caps.

g) Ahmed Hassan became the most capped player in the history of the African Continent with 172 Caps.

The previous list of achievements are facts. To keep things a bit more interesting I decided to make my own awards depending solely on my opinion

Best Goal:

Winner:Abdel Kader Kieta, Cote D'Ivoire vs Algeria.

Coming across the pitch from the right hand side dribbling past players he unleashed a screamer in the top corner worthy of winning any match, it didn't though.

Runner Up:Mohamed Zidan, Egypt vs Algeria.

The striker dribbled to the edge of the penalty area and proceeded to twist and turn Algeria's Belhadj several times showing incredible skill and ball control and then unleashed a left footed strike into the top corner, magical.

Best Team: Egypt, Isn't it obvious?

Black Horse: Zambia, The Copper Bullets looked dead and buried after an agonizing defeat to Cameroon. They came back to beat Gabon and top their group only to lose to Nigeria on penalties in the Quarter Final. Well done.

Best Surprise: Ghana, Missing star players like Muntari, Appiah, Panstil, Mensah and with Essien just recovering from injury their coach was forced to field a lot of youngsters, it did not look good for the black stars. A destructive defeat in their first game against Cote D'Ivoire added to their woes and no on gave them a chance. They reached the final and lost a very close game to Egypt.

Surprise Result: Malawi 3 Algeria 0, No one in world football expected this result. Malawi were virtual new comers on the African scene and Algeria were world cup qualifiers. Malawi dominated and was aided with some goal keeping howlers and deserved their win. Sadly they could not capitalize on the win and crashed out from the first round. Algeria picked themselves up and reached the Semi Final.

Most Thrilling Match: Angola 4 Mali 4, The hosts came on strong with goals from Flavio, Gilberto and Manucho and took a commanding 4-0 lead with 15minutes to go. The Angolans were celebrating until Mali constructed one of the most miraculous of footballing comebacks scoring 4 goals in succession. The last two of which came in injury time. No one could believe their eyes!

Most Enjoyable Match: Egypt 4 Algeria 0, This game was very enjoyable to me. The African Champions proceeded to dismantle the Algerian team with calm, cool and lethal display of football. Revenge was sweet.

Best Player: Ahmed Hassan (Egypt), The Egyptian skipper lead his team to a third successive Cup win and a personal fourth. His energetic and experienced displays were a joy to behold. He was critical to Egypt's campaign in both attack and defense. You would never guess that he was turning 35 years old.

Break Out Star: Mohamed Geddo (Egypt), The striker was a virtual unknown quantity to Egyptians and Africans alike. Shehata gambled on him by including him ahead of the likes of Mido and Zaki and he repaid him in spades. Having a soft touch and a clinical eye for goal, Geddo proceeded to score some breath taking goals, coming off the bench in every single game. His master piece was a peach in the final to win Egypt the tournament. He finished off as top scorer and this will always be remembered as the tournament of Geddo.

Best Keeper:

Winner: Essam Al Hadary (Egypt)

Runner Up: Richard Kingson (Ghana)

In a competition which was shaped by goal keeping mistakes these two keepers are the only ones in the tournament that looked at ease between the posts. Both of them were not fantastic but their consistent displays helped their teams to the Final.

Best Coach:

Winner: Hassan Shehata (Egypt),The veteran achieved the unthinkable with the Pharaohs, winning a third successive Cup of Nations. He was criticized severely after failing to reach the World Cup but has gone along way in redeeming himself. Thought to be the greatest ever African and Egyptian Coach.

Runner Up: Milovan Rajevac (Ghana), With a depleted side and forced to start many youngsters from the world champion under 20 side he managed to forge a formidable team. The players were very disciplined and extremely fit and physical. The injured veterans will have a hard time breaking into the squad. Watch out for Ghana in the World Cup.

Honorable Mention: Arnaud Sika (Benin), He is an excellent player and was Benin's best performer. He is also possibly the smallest ever professional footballer at 155cm (5ft 1in).

Worst Player: Rigobert Song (Cameroon), He had previously not missed a single minute in the Cup Of Nations for his country. An appalling display against Zambia, where he was responsible for the 2 goals Cameroon conceded forced his coach to bench him for the rest of the tournament. He looked lazy and unfit. He was a great player and should respect his history and retire after the world cup.

Worst Coach: Fawzy El Benzarty (Tunisia), Having inherited a demoralized team after failing to qualify to the world cup, El Benzarty can be excused for not reaching the next round. However in my opinion the failure to qualify was his fault. He seemed clueless and unaware of what is going on in both the match and the post match interviews. Tunisia deserve better.

CAN 2010: Crunch Time

The quarter finals of the CAN 2010 are done and dusted to devastating effect. We were treated to some of the tournaments best games. Frankly though the level of football this year round has not been up to par in my opinion.

Angola 0 Ghana 1

Angola surprisingly were favorites in this game. They had won their group and put on some interesting displays lead by the formidable Flavio. On the other hand Ghana were a depleted young team that were lacking many of their well known star players, Essien, Muntari, Appiah, Panstil and Mensah to name a few. Ghana scored early and proceeded to defend for most of the game. Their Goal Keeper Kingston saved their blushes a number of time as he was aided by an extremely wasteful Angolan front line. Manucho especially. It finished 1-0 as the hosts crashed out, at the end however it was a result you would expect given the the history of both nations.

Cote D'Ivoire 2 Algeria 3 (a.e.t)

A battling performance from the desert warriors saw them edge tournament favorites Cote D'Ivoire. The kings of under achievement did it again and they had only themselves to blame and their coach. They dominated the first 15minutes of the game scoring a goal and could have gone 4-0 up if not for their lack of concentration. They let Algeria back in the game slowly and were punished before half time with an excellent taken goal by Matmour. The Algerians fought hard for every ball and for each other and they managed an equalizer at the death of the game after Kieta had put the elephants in front in the 89th minute with a cracker of a goal. With all the talent and experience on show you would expect Ivorians to be bale to defend a goal for 4 minutes but no. Bougherra was virtually unmarked in the penalty area as he headed in a cross that frankly average keeper Barry could have done better with. Algeria sealed their famous win in extra-time after some of the worst defending I have ever seen. A Belhadj cross into the box had 4 Algerian attackers against 2 Ivorian defenders. It was a deserved win for Ziani and Co. after a disciplined performance.

Egypt 3 Cameroon 1 (a.e.t)

Cameroon controlled most of this game and will be wondering how on earth they lost it. Good defensive performance from Egypt forced the Lions to take shots from outside the box as they could not break inside the penalty area. 20 Corners for Cameroon in the game showed their dominance and they took the lead on 25minutes when Ahmed Hassan playing his 170th Cap for Egypt scored an own goal from a Emana corner. Hassan is now the most capped player in the African continent. Hassan redeemed himself by scoring a cracker from 35yards that Kameni could have done better with. Egypt looked threatening on the break but Cameroon controlled the game and looked all the more likely to score. In extra time, a short back pass from Geremi let in Geddo through on goal to score with a well taken finish his third goal of the tournament and Egypt's second. Cameroon then had a right to be very aggrieved after a Hassan free kick was adjudged to have crossed the line although replays showed it wasn't even close. This sealed the win for Egypt by utilizing the mistakes of the opposition and by riding the luck of Shehata. Egypt face Algeria tomorrow in a mouth watering encounter and need to be much better than against Cameroon to beat a very confident Algerian side who already beat Egypt to reach the World Cup in South Africa 2010. I just hope for gods sake that the Egyptian players look at this as just a game and not a grudge match. The will to win is very important but too much of it can back fire. Shehata needs to keep his players calm and focused. Only by keeping a cool head and playing our slick passing game can we beat the Algerians.

Zambia 0 Nigeria 0 (4-5 on pen)

CAN 2010: Group D

Yesterday saw round 2 concluded with Tunisia taking on Gabon and Cameroon taking on Zambia.

Tunisia vs Gabon:

The first game was a lack luster event and seeing Tunisia play you wonder how the mighty have fallen. They are poor and then you see their coach talking and you know why. El Benzarty is very poor and seeing his post game interviews really amused me. The man describes another match. He talked about a disallowed goal that never was and penalties not given although the one real penalty should have been given for a foul on Hull City's Cousin. For some reasons he thought the referee was harsh on them and so did the commentator EL Shawalay. Frankly the ref was probably the best thing in the game. On the other hand I was very impressed by Gabon. I didn't get to see them play Cameroon but they looked very dangerous yesterday and could cause trouble for many teams if they qualify.

Cameroon vs Zambia:

Where to begin. Frankly Rigobert Song put on an appalling display. I don't think he could have played any worse if Zambia had payed him. He gifted Zambia the first goal by heading into his own goal only for Kameni to barely save it but Malenga had an easy tap in a wide open goal. Song was then too lazy to chase a long ball which ended up with Kameni conceding a penalty as he rushed to cover Song's laziness. I have not seen this much bad defending since Titus Bramble was at Newcastle. Paul Le Guen was right to drop him in qualification and I think he should be dropped now if Cameroon have any chance of progressing. How Mr. Le Guen picked him ahead of Spurs Central Defender Bassong is baffling to me.

Zambia's keeper Kennedy Mweene had a role to play too. He gifted Cameroon a way back into the game when all seemed lost. He failed to hold on to a clearance/cross from Geremi who was trying to keep the ball in play. It ended up in the back of the net. After that the game turned over it's head and it was goals galore with Samuel Eto'o then giving Cameroon the lead and Idrissou to seal the win late on after Christopher Katongo had equalized from the spot. Cameroon didn't impress but playing against 12 men (Song was playing for Zambia) they got the job done like true veterans. A clash with Egypt in the quarters seems to be on the cards and it promises to be a cracker.

As It stands Gabon lead the group with points, Cameroon on 3, Tunisia with 2 and Zambia with 1.

Coming Up:

Final games in group A with anyone able to qualify with a win. Angola take on Algeria and Mali take on Malawi. I'm hoping Flavio and co can make it through. Games are played at the same time 16:00 GMT, 18:00 CLT

Road To South Africa 2010

It's crunch time in World Cup Qualifications. Come the end of November 18th all nations to be present in next year's African World Cup will be determined. As a result I thought of discussing each continent and It's qualification possibilities in a series of articles.

AFRICA

Two teams have already qualified with a round to spare, Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire. For the rest of the Continent it's do or die, not only for World Qualification but also for CAN 2010 in Angola next January.

Group A

Cameroon lead the group by 10 points, 1 point ahead of Gabon with both teams travelling to Morocco and Togo respectively. Cameroon need a win to insure qualification while Gabon need to win and hope the Lions fail to win at Morocco. What makes this more interesting is the fact that both Togo and Morocco need a win to clinch the final qualification spot to the African Cup of Nations next year(Top 3 teams qualify), with Togo needing a win to make sure of that regardless of the other result. Cameroon are back to their winning ways under the guidance of Paul Le Guen and have made a remarkable come back under new captain Samuel Eto'o with 3 wins in a row (twice against Gabon and once versus Togo) to put themselves in pole position.

Manga's Prediction: Cameroon to South Africa, Gabon and Togo to Angola

Group B

Surprisingly Tunisia are clear favorites to qualify from this group. They are 2 points ahead of Nigeria thanks to a remarkable 2-2 draw away to the Super Eagles. Nigeria face failure to qualify for the second year running, a disaster by their standards. A win against Mozambique away from home would ensure the Carthage Eagles of Qualification. A draw with Nigeria failing to beat Kenya in Nairobi would lead to the same result. However if Tunisia fail to win and Nigeria beat Kenya the World Cup Qualification spot would go to Nigeria on Goal Difference.

Nigeria's predicament came via a 0-0 away draw with Mozambique sparking speculation that Tunisia's trip there maybe more difficult than it seems.

Similar to Group A both teams have a fight on their hands as Kenya and Mozambique still have real chances of making it to the Nations Cup with Mozambique ahead by 1 point.

Manga's Prediction: Tunisia to South Africa, Nigeria and Mozambique to Angola

Group C

Sadly for me Algeria lead this group by 3 clear points from top seed seed Egypt. Algeria has had a great run in the campaign having not lost any games and accumulating 4 wins that included to wins against Zambia and a 3-1 thrashing of African Champions Egypt in Algeria. Their only negative point came at the start of their campaign with a 0-0 draw away to Rwanda. Egypt seemed dead and buried after 3 rounds and the encounter versus Algeria in Cairo would have been pointless had Egypt not won two strongly contested 1-0 away wins versus Rwanda and Zambia respectively a feat Egypt had not achieved in god knows how long. This group comes with a twist. Egypt needs to beat Algeria by 3 clear goals to ensure automatic qualification, if they manage to win by only 2 goals a one legged play-off game on neutral ground on the 18th of November will have to be played to decide who qualifies to South Africa since all other tie breaking criteria between the teams would be equal . Any other result or an Egypt win by just 1 goal would hand qualification to Algeria for the first time in 24years. I really can't see Egypt beating Algeria twice in 4 days so I feel our best chance is not to go to a decider. The job must be completed in Cairo. Egypt's task is daunting yet not impossible and the 6 time African Champions need to show what they are truly made of if they are to qualify.

Manga's Prediction: Algeria (by numbers and probability) to South Africa, Egypt and Zambia to Angola

Zambia 0 Hadary 1

Egypt took on Zambia last Saturday looking for an away win as the only option to maintain their hopes of qualification to next year's world cup in South Africa. I was expecting to see an Egyptian side full of purpose and energy. A side setup to score goals since score average was going to be a criteria. A coach who knew what he was doing. Off course Hassan Shehata never disappoints and Egypt put on one of the worst footballing displays in our history. I think this might have been worse than the Egypt/Ireland game in Italy 90'. At least then Gohary new what he wanted from the game, one point, and managed to do just that by parking the bus in front of our penalty area for 90 minutes. One can argue that Shehata did the same, Egypt did get 3 points thanks to a screamer from Hosny Abd Rabo (his form may have dropped but boy can he shoot a ball). We did get a 0-1 win at the end but we gave a new meaning to the term winning ugly. It's always a plus win you play poorly and win, it is said to be the mark of champions. Ahly does so on a regular bases and so does great teams like Man United.

The troubling point here is that Egypt managed just 2 shots (1 on target) for 90minutes. We failed to create a single goal scoring opportunity. Our defense was being ripped to shreds, especially behind our two wing backs Moawad and Fathi(Barakat). I'd accept that normally as when your are pushing forward spaces are bound to open up at the back, funny thing is that we weren't pushing forward! We couldn't connect 2 passes together so why were our wing backs out of positions on a regular bases? no bloody idea, ask captain Hassan as it seems he had no idea how Zambia were playing or how to adjust his team accordingly. Say what you say about El Hadary but he is the only reason we are still in World Cup contention. I stand by my words in previous articles that we need to prepare a replacement, but he has proved that he is a man for the big occasions and manages to lift his game accordingly. He did it in the CAN 2006 final and 2008 semis versus Cote D'Ivoire and lately versus Italy in the Confederations Cup. I only hope he can do it again versus Algeria. Hadary managed five world class saves in the first half to keep Egypt in the game. I'm not sure why the rest of the team couldn't lift their game but it seems clearly that most of them were over trained. The long preparation period seemed to have drained them and when you can't pass the ball extra physical effort can help, it didn't cause we did not have it either. I hope to god we don't postpone the league and have a very long preparation period prior to the game against Algeria.

We needed to win this game and you win games by creating chances. Egypt has arguably one of the best play makers in the continent in Mohamed Abu Trieka, so it would seem as a no brainier to use him, we didn't. Shehata proceeded to throw him upfront as a second striker and he rarely touched the ball for 90minutes as Ahmed Hassan and Abd Rabo couldn't fill in that role. Even Barakat was thrown as a wing back and it took our coach 30 minutes to realise that he doesn't have the legs to play there anymore, not in these conditions anyway. Trieka as a support striker might have worked if he has soemone to suplly him the ball and dictate play. Egypt has Hommos, the best passer of the ball in Egyptian football., however he was a sub and never saw any action.

We were slightly better in the second half after the addition of a second striker, but it was a low benchmark and we upped our game from crap to poor. We created half a chance and Hosny delivered. Zambia were distraught, they couldn't believe they conceded a goal as it seemed inevitable that they would score. Push on I thought, the Zambians have lost hope, Egypt's players have come to life, now is the time to put in a second and increase the pressure on Algeria. Never, not under Shehata's reign. Like we did against Rwanda we proceeded to waste time instead of delivering the killer blow to a dazed opponent. At the final whistle scenes of crazy celebrations were on hand. I had no idea why, It seemed I wasn't alone and ART analyst Khaled Bayoumi was baffled too. He was truly upset, as was I and as should any Egyptian who dreams of seeing his beloved Egypt in a World Cup . We had put ourselves in a bit of a jam with just a 1 nil victory, why the celebrations? Luck was on our side, why the rolling on the grass? We needed a favor from Rwanda, why the group hugs? A simple pat on the back would have sufficed followed by an apology by Shehata for an appalling performance and a thank you to Hadary and the right foot of Abd Rabo.

Rwanda did cut us some slack by maintaining a respectable score versus Algeria yesterday and losing just 3-1. After the game me and a friend pondered how simple it would have been to qualify. Just one or two more goals and a simple 1-0 defeat to of Algeria in Cairo would be enough. Apparently Shehata and the players didn't realize that and as Mr. Bayoumi implied it seems captain Hassan was only looking to keep his job by using the excuse that he didn't qualify to a world cup on goal difference, boohoo! Sadly for him we need to win by 2 clear goals to force a play-off game or a toss. Not the daunting task Shehata would have loved had Algeria thrashed Rwanda, no excuses. Sadly for us it would have been much simpler, had Shehata looked to the real goal and instructed his players to score goals and not celebrate poor 1-0 wins against mediocre opposition. My faith lies with the players and not their coach, like they did versus Brazil and in two CAN's they can rise to the occasion once more and take us to South Africa. They are after all the greatest footballing generation Egypt has ever seen and I'm afraid if they fail we will have to wait another 20years to come close.

Another major concern for me was the post match (excuses) conference:

1- The weather was hot

This really made me laugh as it seems Egypt is located in the North of Europe were temperatures are below zero for most of the year. Egypt is in Africa damn it. We are surrounded by desert and temperatures rise to mid 40's in the summer, so I don't think playing in the heat would be much of a shock to most players, hell most Egyptians.

2- The pitch was poor

Oh my god, have you ever seen a pitch in the Egyptian League? are you people from Egypt or maybe imposter's? 'Agroud' stadium anyone? The pitch was better than 75% of African fields.

3- We were upset the U-20 team lost in the World Cup which added extra pressure on us, was the final excuse.

I was extremely annoyed by this one. Shehata and Trieka both said it and it seemed like a PR stunt to suggest that they are the ones who please the fans. Regardless, what does the the U-20 team have to do with it? They lost in the World Cup second round after topping their group and scoring 9 goals. Shehata lost to Japan, drew with Jamiaca and beat England to finish 3rd in his group and get knocked out by Argentina in the same competition with a far superior team most of whom play in the current Egypt first team. I suggest Trieka and Shehata get to the World Cup first before talking about other teams. I pray to god we don't lose a game of ping pong or maybe not qualify for Cannes film festival before the Algeria match cause Shehata might break down before the game, then again why is that a bad thing?

Regardless of anything Egypt will be backing Shehata and his team against Algeria in November. Me I'll be counting on exceptional talents of Trieka and Zidan, the ever tireless Ahmed Hassan and Hadary. My money is on Egypt.

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/56/42/69/fifa_wc_south_africa_2010_regulations_en_14123.pdf

Page 21 has qualification rules