Africa Cup of Nations Wrap Up 1.24.08

Some fantastic action in Africa Cup of Nations Group A today. Most of it in Guinea’s 3-2 win over Morocco and most of that in an amazing three goals in three minutes. It was like watching edited highlights, only it was live. In the second game, Ghana had the majority of possession but only managed a nervous 1-0 win over Namibia, who turned in a much better performance than in their opening 5-1 defeat.

Guinea 3-2 Morocco

The first game of the day was arguably the best of the tournament so far. We were all waiting to see Pascal Feindouno in action for Guinea and that’s exactly what we got. The captain and playmaker (the whole team basically revolves around him) fooled everyone with a free kick from out wide. It looked for all the world like he was going to cross it to the far post but he bent a shot near post instead. Genius. See the goal for yourself here.

The the actions really started in the second half, and if you took a bathroom break or went to make tea or coffee at this point then you missed a treat. On the 59th minute Feindouno played a simple looking but smart through ball for Ismael Bangoura, who faked, turned and then fired home to make it 2-0. While they were drooling over the replays of that, Aboucherouane chraged down the field and struck a magnificent long-range shot into the top corner. Is it just me or is this beautiful adidas wawa aba ball magnetically attracted to the top corners of Ghanaian goal frames? While I was pondering that, Soulemane Youla gets pulled down in the box and Pascal Feindouno converts a penalty. Three goals in about four minutes. You can see them all here.

But the action wasn’t over. Feindouno got all David Beckham ‘98 on us when Erbate (very) deliberatley stepped on his foot. Thinking the ref couldn’t see Feindouno gave Erbante what he thought was a sneaky little kick. Erbante (very much the Digeo Simeoene in this Beckham ‘98 re-enactment) fell dramatically and Feindouno was off. First red card of the tournament. Morocco scored through a Ouaddou header in the 90th minute, but Guinea held out. Brilliant viewing for neutrals, but probably very frustrating for Morocco fans, starting with the slightly odd decision to start star striker Marouane Chamakh on the bench.

Ghana 1-0 Namibia

Like many people, I was expecting a big Ghanaian victory here. But I was wrong. Though Namibia definitely did lose 5-1 to Morocco (I definitely did not imagine it) it’s possible that most of that beating was due to the horrible horrible start they made to that game. Ghana had ample chances and were the dominant team here, with Asamoah Gyan missing all kinds of chances. But Namibia worked hard and counter-attacked fairly regularly.

Eventually, and to the audible relief of the Accra crowd, Junior Agogo scored for Ghana. Michael Essien – who live dup to hus Bison nickname by charging around and bossing the midfield – clipped a ball through to Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, who played a low pass into Junior Agogo to confidently flick it home with his right foot while facing away from goal. A little lucky, and Ghana still haven’t really impressed anyone. But they now have six points from two games so who can argue?

One bit of bad news for Ghana was that Laryea Kingston picked up a booking for taking a free kick before the whistle. That was his second booking of the tournament, so he’ll miss the next game against Morocco. A bit rough on Kingston as his yellow card against Guinea was for time-wasting. Seems like a card for taking too much time and a card for doing something too quickly should balance each other out, no?

The remaining Group A games are:

Ghana vs Morocco (January 28th, 17:00) Accra
Guinea vs Namibia (January 28th, 17:00) Sekondi

Tomorrow’s games in Group B are:

Cote d’Ivoire vs Benin (January 25th, 17:00) Sekondi
Nigeria vs Mali (January 25th, 19:30) Sekondi

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