African Cup of Nations 2010

Eire-Dearg

...is just around the corner. Things are starting to pick up now, as news of the squads come through.

When Didier Drogba left for the 2008 African Cup of Nations, Avram Grant's Chelsea were faced with the problem of how to replace their talismanic striker. The solution? Sign £15m worth of enigmatic French forward from Bolton Wanderers. Nicolas Anelka would be most welcome down at Fratton Park come January, but the Portsmouth manager is operating in a very different environment from that which he enjoyed in west London.

Even if Ali al-Faraj, Portsmouth's third owner in five months, could afford replacements for the four players leaving the club for Angola and January's African Cup of Nations he would be hamstrung by the transfer embargo imposed by the Premier League. Plus players may be wary of joining a club where the timely payment of wages is no longer taken for granted.

Saturday's 2-0 win over Liverpool bucked the season's trend but the Premier League's bottom club can ill afford to lose Nadir Belhadj, Hassan Yebda, Nwankwo Kanu and Aruna Dindane for a month following their Boxing Day match at West Ham United. Grant may be relieved that Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana) and John Utaka (Nigeria) were not called up but he still insists the tournament should not be played in January.

"I don't know why Fifa allow this. I don't know why they have the African Cup of Nations in January," Grant said. "We pay a lot of money, especially the big teams, to players who are not with you for two months. I think Fifa need to think about this."

Although losing his players on 28 December until possibly the first week of February will leave Grant without a chunk of his skeletal squad for approximately a fifth of a Premier League season, for the Israeli it is not simply a matter of time. "It's not easy," he said. "The players go two weeks before and need one or two weeks afterwards to recover. Firstly you have to change the team and secondly it's not easy when they are back. They are coming from hot weather to the most cold days in England. It takes more than a few days to get back to normal."

Premier League paupers and princes have to deal with the same problem – leaders Chelsea, like basement club Portsmouth, are contributing four players to the 28-strong exodus from England's top flight for the 27th staging of Africa's biennial tournament.

Chelsea's African contingent – Drogba, Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Mikel John Obi – are the same four Grant saw leave for Ghana two years ago. Grant oversaw six wins and one draw (Anelka scored the opener in a 1-1 at Fratton Park) in that period, despite other, non-African Cup of Nations-related absentees.

"At Chelsea it was different because we had nine injuries anyway – Lampard was injured, Terry was injured," said Grant, who has taken seven points from a possible 15 since replacing Paul Hart on the south coast. "Then we had four good players – Drogba, Essien, Kalou and Mikel – go and play in this tournament. Even at Chelsea, we won most of the games at this time. It was not easy and we needed to think differently about the team. For any team that loses more than two or three players, it is not easy."

One of Roberto Mancini's initial challenges at Manchester City will be to cope with the loss of the Ivory Coast duo Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor. He should be able to muddle on without Nigeria's Kelvin Etuhu. Hull City are also braced to lose a trio of players, while the north London clubs are set to make do without a pair of African players each.

Everton can expect to lose at least two Nigerians.

Given his knack for discovering raw talent from the continent Arsène Wenger must surely weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of his African contingent. For him to bemoan the loss of Alex Song and Emmanuel Eboué might be a touch hypocritical. Tottenham's manager, Harry Redknapp, on the other hand, last week described a January without Benoît Assou-Ekotto and Sébastien Bassong as "a disaster".

"When you sign them I guess you know you're going to lose them every couple of years, playing in those games. It's a chance you take," said Redknapp, who had to cope with the loss of Kanu, Utaka and Sulley Muntari when he was in charge at Portsmouth two years ago.

Grant had hoped to keep hold of his African quartet until after the home match with Arsenal on 30 December, but a deal could not be struck with Algeria (Belhadj, Yebda), Nigeria (Kanu) or Ivory Coast (Dindane). "We will try and speak with the teams and maybe it will be after Arsenal, but I don't think they will agree," he said. "This is a fact and we cannot change it. So we will try to win in January without these players."

Only six clubs, including Liverpool and Manchester United, do not have to live with this reality.

Bassong isn't going.

Group A
Angola
Mali
Malawi
Algeria

Group B
Côte d'Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Togo

Group C
Egypt
Nigeria
Mozambique
Benin

Group D
Cameroon
Gabon
Zambia
Tunisia

everdead.ie

Turns out Bassong was not picked for the cameroon squad thank god but still loosing assou-ekotto unfortunately it's a big loss

Bobalicious93

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Group B
Côte d'Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Togo

That's quite a group. Drogba, Essien, and Adebayor all on show there. Should be fun.

Hank_Jones

Ivory Coast duo Toure and Adebayor....Adebayor is from Togo.

You would think that news writers would get their information right...

Bukman13

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

...is just around the corner. Things are starting to pick up now, as news of the squads come through.




Group A
Angola
Mali
Malawi
Algeria

Group B
Côte d'Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Togo

Group C
Egypt
Nigeria
Mozambique
Benin

Group D
Cameroon
Gabon
Zambia
Tunisia

My take on how the groups will pan out.


Group A

Angola - Hosts, High Expectations from home fans. They haven't lost a competitive home match in the last 10 years.

Mali - Key players, Freddy Kanouté (8 goals in Qualifying) and Seydou Keita.

Malawi - Only scored 4 goals in 6 games from qualifying. Will struggle to win a match.

Algeria - Impressive in quailfying, pipped the group favourites Egypt into World Cup.

Prediction: Angola and Algeria to progress.



Group B - Thoughest group IMO

Ivory Coast - One of Africa's big guns. Tagged as Favourites! Star players in every position. Anything less than a Final would be a disaster from their perspective.

Burkina Faso - Excellent in qualifying (W9 D1 L2), Those 2 losses being against the Ivory Coast ( 3-2 and 5-0). Player to watch Moumouni Dagano (12 goals in 12 games) from Wolrd Cup qualifying.

Ghana - One of Africa's big guns. 4 time winners. Qualified with ease, Key player Micheal Essien.

Togo - Adebayor's form/attitude will dictate how Togo fair.

Prediction: Ivory Coast and Ghana will be too strong. I think had Burkina Faso been in any other group they would have progressed.



Group C

Egypt - One of Africa's big guns. Have won the competition a record 6 times. They lost out to Algeria in a World Cup playoff after they finished on identical records. Player to watch Amir Zaki.

Nigeria - One of Africa's big guns. They sneaked into the world cup in the final few moments of the campaign. Always a threat.

Mozambique - Conceded late goal after late goal all the way through quailfying (Ireland Syndrom), their games are usually tight low scoring affairs.

Benin - Romuald Boco known as the "King of Benin" in his homeland may be familiar to League of Ireland followers. The Benin captain plays for Sligo Rovers.

Prediction: Nigeria and Egypt.



Group D

Cameroon - One of Africa's big guns. 4 time winners. Key players Samuel Eto'o, Axelandre Song and Goal Keeper Kameni.

Gabon - Missed out on the World Cup after losing two consecutive games to opponents Cameroon after a bright start. Player to watch Daniel Cousin.

Zambia - Finished qualifying with a record of W3 D3 L4, having only scored 4 goals and conceding 6 in 10 games.

Tunisia Looked like certainties to get to the World Cup only for it to fall apart in the last 10mins. Player to watch Oussama Darragi.

Prediction: Cameroon. With both one of Tunisia and Gabon getting 4pts each, and it going down to goal diff.

mormank

ive said it before and ill say it again. i dont understand how on earth they get away with placing an international tournie right in the middle of jan like this! its a complete joke and it gets me everytime...i wonder what would happen if south america tried to change their copa america to the middle of october every two years or any big federation for that matter. it really beggars belief.

having said that, as a liverpool fan, i think its great news that most of my rival teams will be losing key players and seeing as how utd can buy 3 points at the moment it will be interesting to see what the table looks like come feb

CHD

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CHD

Will win it.

Hank_Jones

Sorry, who?

therokerroar

I can't believe Bassong didn't get selected like, I can't imagine too many of their defenders are playing week in, week out at Premier League level, has something gone on behind the scenes?

Anyway, Ivory Coast will walk this IMO.

dreamers75

Stupid time for the tournament, but always some great games. Almost all end out being high scoring due to utterly useless defenders


tip:


Get €50 by whatever means necessary open an online betting account and make 20 single €5 bets on the 1st 20 games being 4 goals or over.

You will have a lot more than €50 by the end of the 20 games

The Volt

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Sorry, who?

Essien. An African Island nation just south of Cape Verde

Neil3030

dreamers75 wrote: »

Stupid time for the tournament, but always some great games. Almost all end out being high scoring due to utterly useless defenders


tip:


Get €50 by whatever means necessary open an online betting account and make 20 single €5 bets on the 1st 20 games being 4 goals or over.

You will have a lot more than €50 by the end of the 20 games

Would that not require €200?

therokerroar wrote: »

I can't believe Bassong didn't get selected like, I can't imagine too many of their defenders are playing week in, week out at Premier League level, has something gone on behind the scenes?

Anyway, Ivory Coast will walk this IMO.

Cockney wheeler dealer and african footballing authority in dodgy selection shocker!! :eek::eek:

therokerroar

Neil3030 wrote: »

Cockney wheeler dealer and african footballing authority in dodgy selection shocker!! :eek::eek:

Very good point that mate, especially considering 'Arry makes Del Trotter look like Mother Theresa.

Quint

Pity Ghana don't have a decent striker, they'd be a great team if they did.

dreamers75

Neil3030 wrote: »

Would that not require €200?

if i could do maths its €100 but €50 will do

Daemos

Neil3030 wrote: »

Would that not require €200?

€100?

Edit: Damn, beaten to it

Neil3030

dreamers75 wrote: »

if i could do maths its €100 but €50 will do

DaPoolRulz wrote: »

€100?

Edit: Damn, beaten to it

Sorry, €100, you're absolutely right.

SlickRic

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Sorry, who?

CHD, and Essien.

his 'special friend'....

Eire-Dearg

The Togo national team bus was attaked by rebel soldiers - no deaths, just injuries.

CHD

Standard

daithijjj

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

The Togo national team bus was attaked by rebel soldiers - no deaths, just injuries.

Bullet wounds are a little worrying mind. City trying to contact adebayor apparently.

Headshot

Togo are thinking of pulling out of the ANC now

Paleface

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

The Togo national team bus was attaked by rebel soldiers - no deaths, just injuries.

And so it starts.

Seemingly Angola is a mess with rebels fighting for independence!

Paleface

Paleface wrote: »

And so it starts.

Seemingly Angola is a mess with rebels fighting for independence!

Angola is one of the most dangerous countries in Africa.

The decision to hold it there was controversial to say the least. With this happening it looks ludicrous.

flahavaj

This is insane, the whole tournament could be in doubt with this kind of stuff going on.

CHD

Come back Essien quickly Poor guy

The Volt

3 people seriously injured according to SSN

callaway92

flahavaj wrote: »

This is insane, the whole tournament could be in doubt with this kind of stuff going on.

no it isn't in doubt

Ush1

Ah those crazy Africans, the gun really is God there.

LiamMc

Unfortunately the bus driver for the Togolese squad died and two players and a number of medics are reported injured.

It's very bad what happened at that border post, in that one corner of an enclave of the third largest country in Africa. The Togo were not protected properly and poor decisions were made in travelling by road. But the infrastructure of the country will improve as a direct result of the tournament.

L'prof

CHD wrote: »

Come back Essien quickly Poor guy

Essien plays for Ghana

UnitedIrishman

Putting my money each-way on Algeria @ 15/1.

After backing Egypt at 28/1 pre-tournament on Betfair last year hopefully Algeria can make me some more.

Quint

I heard Angola was a fairly ropey place to visit. In fairness, even their flag is sort of scary looking

_blank_

I assume the Angoila/Mali match is still on this evening then?

Haven't heard anything about it being off.

L'prof

Yep, so far anyway...ridiculous to be honest!!!

Vokes

Any lineups yet?

Mali's potential midfield lineup looks very very strong. Are their defence of any use?

Bukman13

Vokes wrote: »

Any lineups yet?

Mali's potential midfield lineup looks very very strong. Are their defence of any use?

Yea, and with Kanoute up front they are dangerous.

Angola have an unbelievable home record though (over 10 years unbeaten). And given it's the opening game, I reckon Mali will have to play really well to get anything from the match.

_blank_

Is there an opening ceremony?

CHD

jasonorr wrote: »

Essien plays for Ghana

Well done Einstein.

Vokes

Des wrote: »

Is there an opening ceremony?

Yep, its on right now.

daithijjj

Opening ceremony and first game i believe.

http://www.iraqgoals.net/ch4.html

Bukman13

No idea why Keita didn't start. Manager throws him on after 35mins.

Bukman13

Super Header from Flavio!!!!

1-0 36mins

Bukman13

Another great header from Flavio....

2-0

Headshot

just tuned in and I see the Manucho playing

Bukman13

Pen for Angola

Bukman13

Gilberto scores after ref orders a retake

Bukman13

Gilberto taken down in the box again.... another penn

Bukman13

Manucho makes it 4

Bukman13

Keita pulls one back.

Carlos spills the ball from a corner.