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2012 African Cup of Nations


JackFrost
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Anyone else watching this tournament.? For those who don't know the African Cup of Nations is the most comedic football tournament on planet earth, from the terrible organization of the tournament itself, to the awful goalkeepers, the woeful defending and things you couldn't imagine happening on a football pitch itself.

 

As the ability of the players range from world class/champions league ability to players that play for their local amateur team in their home countries it really is a tournament that combines the sublime with the ridiculous. It kicks off (in more ways than one I suspect) on saturday.

 

Here's a few of my favourite moments from the last tournament in 2010

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_WkgmHUr6c&feature=related

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Big respect to the Libyan football team for managing to qualify

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Always an enjoyable tournament to watch. Like you say the teams have such varying abilties within their own squads, you'll have a striker who plays champions league and a centre half who is semi-pro in the Zambian 1st division.

 

It should be a fascinating tournament this year given the failure of Egypt (won the last 3 tournaments), Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africas to qualify. Ghana and Ivory Coast would be the obvious favourites but the Ivorians do not have a great history in the tournament and Gyan is not 100% fit for Ghana.

 

I cannot see co-hosts Equatorial Guniea doing much, ranked 151st in the FIFA standings and in true Cup of Nations fashion only appointed their manager 18 days ago. Shame they didn't plump for Cup of Nations legend Bruno Metsu, it'll be a weaker tournament without him

 

I think Senegal would be a good bet from the group of "outsiders" their strike force is quality, and they have a relativly easy group to get warmed up in.

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I'll certainly be watching, it'll be the best international football tournament in 2012. Always entertaining.

 

As fish fingers rightly (rare for him) points out, new intrigue this year as there are so many new teams and many 'bigger' nations haven't qualified for the tournament. It is more open than ever before.

 

You'd think this is the best chance for the Ivorians, but it could be a year for a nation such as Mali to come to fore and take the spoils.

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I'll certainly be watching, it'll be the best international football tournament in 2012. Always entertaining.

 

As fish fingers rightly (rare for him) points out, new intrigue this year as there are so many new teams and many 'bigger' nations haven't qualified for the tournament. It is more open than ever before.

 

You'd think this is the best chance for the Ivorians, but it could be a year for a nation such as Mali to come to fore and take the spoils.

 

Some excellent pre-tournament preperations for them, they arranged no warm up matches.

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Yes, Ba isn't guaranteed a start, he hasn't been in the first XI for the majority of qualifying.

 

Have taken the 11/2 on offer on Senegal, I think that is excellent value. Was tempted by Angola and Mali, but the latter have two key players out injured and they have had interesting preparation, as outlined above.

 

Group winners accumlater of Senegal, Angola, Tunisia and Mali.

 

Not surprised colinjb has no knowledge of tournament, he's rarely shown much knowledge of football over the years.

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Not surprised colinjb has no knowledge of tournament, he's rarely shown much knowledge of football over the years.

 

How kind of you to notice. ;) I really enjoyed following the Cup of Nations on the BBC a few years ago, was quite a shame to see that they havn't continued with it.

 

Hopefully the 'crowd control' measures being used by the authorities are not too heavy. The use of tear gas sadly suggests otherwise.

 

Equatorial Guinea v Libya is on now, as mentioned previous, kudos to Libya for actually qualifying in the first place.

Edited by Colinjb
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Anyone else see Gabon vs Morocco?

 

Morocco go 1-0 up, Gabon turn it around to lead 2-1 after 78 mins, Morocco get a penalty in the 90th min and score to make it 2-2. Then Gabon get a free kick and Mbanangoye hits a 98th minute 25 yard screamer to win it 3-2 for Gabon.

 

Sensational stuff

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congrats to Zambia, amazing story.

 

Winning it in Gabon after the 1993 Zambian team were all killed in a plane crash off the coast of the same country.

 

Enjoyed the tournament, some breathtaking matches and some scandalous tackles flying in all tournament. Didn't have the usual amount of calamitous goals that could only be scored in the AFCON and the goalkeepers weren't that eccentric overall but still a very enjoyable tournament overall. Great to see Sudan, Mali and Zambia do so well.

 

As an aside anyone else hear Libya's bizarre new national anthem?

 

At first I thought they'd played the wrong music and it was a classic AFCON moment. (I remember them forgetting to play one side's anthem before a game before) until the players were singing along with it

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