For about a month precisely from January 9 to the 6th of February, Africa and the world were treated to a great spectacle of football, the 33rd edition of The CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), held in Cameroun played in 5 cities and 6 venues.
Before the tournament began there were loud murmurs from European teams who worried about releasing their African International players in the middle of the season. There was also a worry that Covid 19 would disrupt the tourney.
Pre-tournament favorites
Algeria: The Fennecs were tournament defending champions, and won the 2021 Arab Cup in December. They were on a 33 game unbeaten run, with stars like Manchester City winger Mahrez, Slimane, and Bounedjah, they were pundits favourites.
Egypt; 7 time tournament winners who had Africa’s best player Mohammed Salah were also tipped for the Cup.
Ivory Coast: Parading gifted forwards like Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace and Sebastien Haller of Ajax, the Elephants were a feared squad.
Senegal: With the spine Edoard Mendy in goal, Khoulibally in defence, Gueye in the middle and Sadio Mane in attack, the Lions of Senegal were tipped to excel in this tourney.
Perennial bronze medal winners the Super Eagles were not rated highly pre tournament, especially after struggling through their last 3 world cup qualifiers and sacking Coach Gerhnot Rohr a few weeks to the tournament. Austin Egoavoen was appointed coach in an interim capacity.
This tournament had 2 debutants, Gambia and Comoros Islands, they were expected to be the also rans alongside teams like Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Sudan, and Guinea Bissau.
Squads
Team dynamics have been changing since AFCON began in 1957. In the early years, all the players were born in Africa and played for African based clubsides, but by the 1992 edition held in Senegal, the foreign based players outnumbered the home based ones. A major change in this years competition was the significant increase in the number of players in the competition not born in Africa. The country where most players in this tournament were born was not Cameroun, Nigeria, or Egypt, it was France with 114 out of the 654 participating players, that’s roughly 20% of the participants. 21 players in the tournament were born in Senegal, same as Spanish born players though they represented Equatorial Guinea, 16 players were born in the UK, including Joe Aribo, Semi Ajayi and Ola Aina for Nigeria, Steven Caulker, Osman Kakay, and Kevin Wright for Sierra Leone, and Wilfried Zaha for Ivory Coast. The advantage here is nations can get the services of players born in Europe who have excellent coaching from the Academy System, but the local leagues need to be developed so that in the future there are still quality players born in Africa representing African teams.
Biggest upsets
Algeria crashing out of the group stage after a draw and 2 defeats ended the 35 game unbeaten run of the earstwhile AFCON Champions. Ghana’s Black Stars, with 2 draws and a loss to debutants Comoros also were eliminated at the group stage. The Super Eagles of Nigeria surpassed expectations by winning 9 group stage points, but losing to a Covid 19 depleted Tunisian team that finished 3rd in their group was an upset of sorts as expectations were for at least the Eagle’s usual bronze medal.
Tournament surprises
Debutants Comoros got as far as the round of 16, faced Cameroun with no recognized goalkeeper in the squad and narrowly lost by two goals to one.
Gambia the other debutant eliminated Guinea in the round of 16 before bowing out in the last 8 to hosts Cameroun like Comoros did in the previous round.
Equatorial Guinea after winning the biggest upset against Algeria went out in the quarter finals against a Kalidou Koulibaly and Sadio Mane led Senegal.
Game of the tournament
Hosts Cameroun took on newbies Comoros Island. The Islanders upset the form book by qualifying for the 2nd round, and they had the difficult task of seeing off the Indomitable Lions. This task was made almost impossible when the Islanders lost all their goalkeepers. Salim Ben Boina the first choice was injured and his understudies Ali Ahamada and Moyadh Ousseini tested positive for Covid-19. Comoros accepted their fate as CAF already ruled that if a team could field 11 fit players the AFCON fixture would go on. Left back Chaker Alhadhur, of French Ligue 2 side AC Ajaccio was selected in goal. Even though it didn’t quite end like the Cinderella story for Comoros as they lost the game by 2 goals to one., Alhadhur covered himself in gold as he saved 5 out of the 7 shots aimed at his goal, ensuring the Islanders went home with their heads held high, after their great underdog story.
Sore point
Jock Stein the legendary Glasgow Celtic coach is credited to have said “Football is nothing without the fans” This statement was further accentuated when 8 fans were killed in a stampede while attempting to gain entrance to watch the Cameroun versus Comoros round of 16 game. As a direct result of low attendance in the opening games, tournament organisers decided to open the gates to the fans, this was the backdrop to crowds rushing to the Olembe Stadium. Investigations of the root causes of this sad event were being carried out as at press time. Football is a game that brings joy to many, it is regrettable that fans would lose their lives in an attempt to watch the beautiful game.
The finals
Two of the pre-tournament favourites Senegal and Egypt qualified for the final game. Senegal had the easier route winning their knockout games comfortably, Egypt on the other hand went through 120 minutes and penalties 3 consecutive times before reaching the finals. It was dubbed Sadio Mane vs Mohammed Salah, after the 2 Liverpool Fc forwards who played for both nations.
The game was full of drama starting with Mane missing a penalty in the 8th minute, then a goalless 90 minutes after relentless Senegalese attacks and dogged Egyptian defending. This led to extra time, the 4th consecutive one for Egypt, and ultimately the lottery of penalties. Sadio Mane decided the match in a slightly different way from how he started it, by slotting home the winning penalty and sending Senegalese fans Dakar to Ziguinchor, St Louis to Louga to football Heaven and delivering their first tournament triumph.
Awards
Best Goalkeeper; Edoard Mendy of Senegal
Top Scorer; Vincent Aboubakar of Cameroun with 8 goals
Player of the tournament; Sadio Mane of Senegal
Aliou Cisse the coach of Senegal turned back the hands of time and reversed the 2002 tournament in Mali. He was the Captain of the Senegal side that lost to Cameroun in the finals, He was also the coach of the Senegal team that lost to champions Algeria in 2019. 20 years after the Mali finals he lost as a player and 2 after the 2019 final loss, he led Senegal to victory in the same tournament in Cameroun.
Congratulations Terranga Lions and Senegal, deserving AFCON Champions.
This article was also written in the 2022 edition of the Aso Pipes, the Magazine of the Abuja Chapter of the Ex Navy Boys.