Most of Central and the Southern African region were barely able to make a dent in the tournament, in fact the Chipopolo Boys of Zambia who were the defending Cham- pions were sent home early and could not even make the final 8.
CAPE VERDE CELEBRATES
We were treated to a sneak peek of things to come in African football as tiny nations like Cape Verde mustered all they had, to not only make it to the African Cup of Na- tions for the first time in their history but all the way to the Quarter-Finals. It was treat watching them play with grit and determination and not a care about superpowers or no superpowers especially their center-back Nando Neves who was key to their de- fense and was the main anchor of the team with his hard and dogged performance at the heart of their back line.
The disappointment of the tournament was both Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire withal their big name superstars who once again were knocked out of the tournament with teams that barely had any big name players. You would think with all the noise about their EPL and European leagues stars they would run right through their opponents with ease but African football does not buy into that hype and when you come to the conti- nent you have to play ball with real hardcore players who don’t get all the attention but
63
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68