can play at the highest level.
THE STALLIONS GRACEFUL IN DEFEAT
The Stallions of Burkina Faso were like a hidden diamond as they were very impressive and their style of Football was so good that even though they lost in the Final to Nigeria proved to me that they were one of the best teams in South Africa and that they will be seen around for a while in top flight football on the continent.
The Super Eagles were worthy champions, they showed it regardless of the poor start they had to their campaign and their victory over Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals in- jected the extra confidence they needed to propel the al the way to the finals. Their performances throughout the three knockout stage matches were much better than all the other 16 teams had shown throughout the tournament
As is always the case in Africa, we like to have stars and big names on the pitch but Nigeria’s coaching staff and its head coach Stephen Keshi decided they were not go- ing to have any part of that and for that there was a lot of inner fighting with the fed- eration but at the end of the day what was most important was to win it all and Keshi proved he could do it and do it with home based players which is what he did and for that matter it was a home based player in Sunday Mba which scored the lone goal in the Final ending Nigeria’s 19 drought on the big stage.
Mba’s goal was superb and with that he went down in history as one of Africa’s great players who will likely not be playing in the Nigerian Premier League next season as foreign teams come calling for his services.
Coach Keshi besides proving to his countrymen and Africa and of all, his main detrac- tors; the Nigerian FA that he could win at the highest level with his own style of man- agement, celebrated becoming the second person to ever win the AFCON as both a player and a manager and the first black African Coach to ever do so.
The 2013 African Cup of Nation had proven that there is a great improvement in the African game. Both on the continent and on the global stage all eyes will now be on
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