CAN 2008

CAN 2008 - Coupe d'Afrique de Nation 2008

African favorite past time is soccer, and nothing is bigger than the African Cup of Nations that takes place every two years. I am fortunate to be in Africa for two African Cups in a row. Guinea qualified both time for it, but in 2006 I think we were unfairly arbited against Senegal and couldn't advance past quarter final.

They are 16 countries qualified to play:
Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt (host and champion of CAN 2006), Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Sudan, Cameroon, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa.

Opening match - Guinea vs. Ghana (Sunday)

We are (now I think unfortunately) chosen to play the opening match against the host country Ghana. Ghana is southeast of us next to Ivory Coast, a much more developped country and English speaking. I have a good friend working out there, inch Allah, I will make a trip out there after COS. Back to the match, the first half, the Guinean team was tight, not with it, the Ghanians were constantly knocking at our door, and our defensive had so many holes, if it wasn't for a great guardian, and luck (the ball hit the goal post 3 times and didn't go in), Ghanians would have made 4 or 5 goals on us than just the 2 they were able to make. We scored one goal but still lost nevertheless.

We face Morocco on Thursday, a team better than Ghana in my opinion, who just beat Namibia 5 to 1. We have to win this next match to stay in the game, but it will not be easy.

Ivory Coast - Nigeria (Monday)

Tosi, if you are reading this, sorry I had to support Ivory Coast, one being they are our neighbor, two I like Droghba, a great attacker and cute, and I supported them against Egypt in the last CAN. It was such a tight final, and it came down to penalty shootout to determine the champion, match of two very good goalies. Especially the Egyptian one. A real character on the field.

The two teams (Ivory Coast - Nigeria) are pretty much at the same level, so it was a very heated game, but Ivory Coast played slightly better at this match and was much quicker. I was happy that Ivory Coast came out with a score of 2 to 1.

Egypt - Cameron (Tuesday)

Of course I wouldn't miss this game either, a match between 2 giants, Egypt has won CAN 5 times, Cameron 4 times. Egypt won CAN 2006, but it could easily have gone to Ivory Coast, and I think the fact they were on their home turf helped. The most famous player on Cameron's team is Samuel Eto'o. All my kids love him. He is what a soccer player like I remembered back in the days when I started watching world cup in 1988. I remember liking very much the physique of a soccer player, muscular but lean, not too short and not too tall, just right, great thigh muscle. Nowadays, soccer players are so much bigger and taller than before. They are some pretty bulky guys on the Egyptian team, but they still run really fast and all throughout the 90 minutes game. The Egyptian team dominated the game during the first half, making 3 goals easily, totally frustrated the Cameronians. The second half, Cameroon was able to show that they weren't 4 time champions for nothing, making 2 goals, one is a beautiful head shot by Eto'o, but it was too little too late, and Egypt came back with a 4th goal to finish the game. I supported Egypt but felt quite bad for Cameroon. Thank god that Guineans aren't in the same group as Egypt, we would probably have lost terribly. The Egyptian players have really good ball handling skills. It's a treat to watch them play.

Guinea vs. Morocco (Thursday)

I was worried about this one, because if we lost this one that would mean that's it for us, but Allah was on our side today. About 10 minutes into the first half, we got a penalty shot and made our first goal. We continue to make 2 goals with another one by penalty shot, but if you look at the game overall, Morocco dominated us, they had 60% possession during the game and was always in front of our goalpost. They were able to score 2 goals, but with some luck, Guinea won today. Unfortunately, the capitan Feindouno made a stupid move, back kicked a Moroccan player and got a red card, which means we have to play without our best player in the next game against Namibia, who has lost terribly to Morocco 1-5.