African Cup of Nations

WOW! what a nice surprise Algeria winning in extra time. Can't wait for the World Cup to start. First the USA win to start well (OH SAY CAN YOU SEE...), AND THEN Algeria WITH THE KO punch.

No offside! Bad luck for Ivory Coast.

...and Chelsea get Drogba back - unlucky United/Arsenal

Ivory Coast are not a team. They are just a bunch of players that don't really want to play for the national team (not in the cup at least).

Pierre Littbarski wrote:



...and Chelsea get Drogba back - unlucky United/Arsenal

Seemed better without him.

I haven't watched the ACN except the extra-time in Algeria's latest win. Feel free to correct me, but is Algeria about to play Egypt in the semifinal?

Algeria nicely setting up to a huge WC showing.

Pierre Littbarski wrote:


...and Chelsea get Drogba back - unlucky United/Arsenal

We got Eboue back though so i think its about equal.

so the ivory coast goal in something like the 90th minute and thought the game was over, guess i was wrong.

But we get Yaya back at least, time for pep to return, to the beauty and monstorness that is Yaya an Xaviesta in midfield, and rap up the league as early as possible.

did drogba score a goal in the cup are did eto'o own him again as per usual

More importantly - has Eto'o refused to take any important penalties for his country in this tournament?

Once again Ivory Coast disappoint. Their LB (no. 22) is full of FAIL. Algeria figured out that Ivory Coast can't deal with crosses and had a back 4 that can't even form a straight line, and exploited it fully.

On the basis of this tournament, it's definitely Germany-Ghana-Australia-Serbia that's the group of death in the World Cup, not Brazil-Portugal-Korea-Ivory Coast.

Egypt on the way to the treble.

3-1 was not a goal. Failure from the referee...too bad for the game.

Both games so far gone to eztra time. Shows how tight it is i guess between all these teams now. I think Nigeria will win it crazy as that would have seemed a few weeks ago.

kas wrote:Once again Ivory Coast disappoint. Their LB (no. 22) is full of FAIL. Algeria figured out that Ivory Coast can't deal with crosses and had a back 4 that can't even form a straight line, and exploited it fully.

On the basis of this tournament, it's definitely Germany-Ghana-Australia-Serbia that's the group of death in the World Cup, not Brazil-Portugal-Korea-Ivory Coast.

I was never in doubt about that being the Group of death. Feel for Serbia, its going to be really tough for them to live up to their "dark horse" billing.

bluenine wrote:

kas wrote:Once again Ivory Coast disappoint. Their LB (no. 22) is full of FAIL. Algeria figured out that Ivory Coast can't deal with crosses and had a back 4 that can't even form a straight line, and exploited it fully.

On the basis of this tournament, it's definitely Germany-Ghana-Australia-Serbia that's the group of death in the World Cup, not Brazil-Portugal-Korea-Ivory Coast.

I was never in doubt about that being the Group of death. Feel for Serbia, its going to be really tough for them to live up to their "dark horse" billing.

What for being the best team in their group

Cameroon got no quality. Emana is in terrible form or maybe he only shows form in spurts. M'bia missed through injury ro what. makoun never performs for his country. Song brothers and Eto'o apart, any players with quality? Kameni isnt reliable either. Shouldn't have let that first goal.

What happenend to that Tchoyi bloke? Another Pierre disaster?

L r dd wrote:What happenend to that Tchoyi bloke? Another Pierre disaster?

couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. did put a single good cross in whole of the tournament. Is that enough?

Laudable Laudrup wrote:

L r dd wrote:What happenend to that Tchoyi bloke? Another Pierre disaster?

couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. did put a single good cross in whole of the tournament. Is that enough?

He can't do anything if he doesn't play.

He's not about crossing anyway - he's about passing, dribbling and finishing.

Class act - Eto'o may be their best player but Tchoyi is their most talented.

bluenine wrote:

kas wrote:Once again Ivory Coast disappoint. Their LB (no. 22) is full of FAIL. Algeria figured out that Ivory Coast can't deal with crosses and had a back 4 that can't even form a straight line, and exploited it fully.

On the basis of this tournament, it's definitely Germany-Ghana-Australia-Serbia that's the group of death in the World Cup, not Brazil-Portugal-Korea-Ivory Coast.

I was never in doubt about that being the Group of death. Feel for Serbia, its going to be really tough for them to live up to their "dark horse" billing.

This group is indeed much harder then Holland-Cameroon-Japan-Denmark

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

Laudable Laudrup wrote:

L r dd wrote:What happenend to that Tchoyi bloke? Another Pierre disaster?

couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. did put a single good cross in whole of the tournament. Is that enough?

He can't do anything if he doesn't play.

He's not about crossing anyway - he's about passing, dribbling and finishing.

Class act - Eto'o may be their best player but Tchoyi is their most talented.

He came on in one game at half time and started another. Such a poor finisher and didnt do anything in whole of the tournament apart from putting a cross which Eto'o scored against mighty Zambia .

Eto'o's coming home!!

Song's coming home!

Penalty shootout

Nigeria was dissapointing.

Very good takers so far!

Poor Sambia!

Nigera doesnt deserve to win this game. at all.
Hope they go out now

Laudable Laudrup wrote:Cameroon got no quality. Emana is in terrible form or maybe he only shows form in spurts. M'bia missed through injury ro what. makoun never performs for his country. Song brothers and Eto'o apart, any players with quality? Kameni isnt reliable either. Shouldn't have let that first goal.

Weird post Frenchman.

- The other Song(the uncle of Alex Song) is currently not part of the Cameroon 1st team.

- Emana was one of their best players against Egypt and i dunno why he was taken off.

- They've clearly got a lot of good and talented players in the team

Their main problem is they've a got a new coach who is still far from knowing what his best team is. He's chopping and changing in every match. I think after trying all different permutations he should end up playing something resembling a christmass tree with Eto'o up top because his best players are central players.

I actually think they were better than Egypt but that 3rd goal(which was a wrong call) killed them. If they could incorperate Bassong and Ekotto into the defence before the world cup then they would have a fairly strong backline in South Africa.

Song is back !

Le guen, fucked it up for cameroon, 4-3-3 doesn't fit every freaking team

The arabs are kicing ass once again in this cup. They have certainly raised the level of this cup with their organisation but it has taken away some of the fun that I used to enjoy. My other african friends went crazy at the arabs and just hate their guts. Kind of fun to see but Ivory Coast/Cameroon/Nigeria can't come into a cup with such bad defences and expect their offensive stars to do something. None of them played like teams with Cameroon/Nigeria still tinkering with their first team during the cup.

Ivory Coast since the last ACN still hasn't sorted out that Keita should be a sure starter and especially over Kalou. Even then they don't get the best out of Drogba.

So far the most frustrating thing has been the crosses/freekicks/corners. They have been unbelievable and unforgiveable at times. The refs have been good while the linesmen have been crap with the decision today against Cameroon being the best example so far.

Jaime wrote:More importantly - has Eto'o refused to take any important penalties for his country in this tournament?

Antarion wrote:Poor Sambia!

Nigera doesnt deserve to win this game. at all.
Hope they go out now

They are a very good team. And they were playing without one of their top 3 players IMO, Kalaba(a personal favourite of mine).

They don't have big names but what makes them good is they are a TEAM, well drilled and very good tactically*. When i 1st saw them in the tournament they mainly played in the opponents half but today they waited in their half, played very compact, pressed and harried Nigeria(similar to how Liverpool do) and then tried to break quickly when they had the ball. It's a shame Kalaba was missing they could have been more dangerous on the ball with him.

* Most people don't associate being tactically good with African teams but we've seen there have been alot of progress in that area in this tournament. Teams like Gabon, Mozambique, Zambia etc have shown a high level of discipline and organistaion. Most of their players are unknown to all of us but they are capable of frustating big teams by being very organised. I think the gap between the top teams and the small teams in Africa is not big anymore. And that is very good news.