the whole story of the game. Ethiopia had their big moment, when they came from behind with ten men to draw with the defending champions Zambia.
Zambia who were the defending cham- pions and found themselves in a group with Nigeria, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso were tipped to qualify from this group with Nigeria. However they were very disappointing and crashed out at the group stages. What a difference a year makes.
It also goes to show that re-
taining the African Cup of Nations is very hard (unless you are Egypt). The only person who managed to cover himself in glory from the Zambian team was the keeper Ken- nedy Mweene who scored two penal- ties, including the equalizer against Nigeria in the dying minutes. However we will never forget their victory 12 months previously.
Is this Drogba’s Swan song
times playing three games in a week. Although Yaya Toure scored a couple of goals he too could not dominate the way he used to. It is generally felt that this team might have come to the end of the road, as Drogba may not return for the next tournament, as he will be almost 37 then. Nothing has changed with Ghana. Al- though they possess one of the best defenses in Africa, they lack the fire- power up front to kill off games. Once again they threw away an opportunity to win their fifth title, which has now al- most become an alba- tross around their neck. If they are going to challenge in the future, they are going to have to find a striker who will either compliment Asa- moah Gyan or succeed him. The penalties they took during the penalty shootout with Burkina Faso were dreadful.
Togo led by Emmanuel
Ivory Coast who were once again tipped as favorites to win this tourna- ment and labeled as the “golden gen- eration” failed to live up to their billing as they came up short in the quarter fi- nals against Nigeria. Didier Drogba looked a shadow of himself and this might be due to the fact that at the time he was playing in the Chinese league, which does not have the same intensity as leagues around Europe, such as the Premier League where he was some-
17
Adebayor gave a good account of themselves but would be kicking them- selves that they wasted a good oppor- tunity to reach the semi final for the first time in their history. Adebayor had chances in the early stages of their quarter final with Burkina Faso but he failed to convert them. However it was still an outstanding achievement that Togo reached the quarter final for the first time in their history. Rather than criticize Adebayor I would like to com- mend him for eventually changing his mind to represent his country at the Na- tions Cup for the first time since the un-
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