By Sunday Oliseh
When needed, Africans do deliver
Africans can host Afcon with two months’ notice. When Morocco pulled out of hosting the Afcon, due to fears of the spread of Ebola, many feared disaster. There were calls from several sectors to shift the Afcon to later in the year or scratch it entirely.
Caf standing its ground to host it, giving any new hosts just about eight weeks to prepare, has been vindicated by the success, or sort of, of this championship. Africans can deliver when we want to.
African referees need help
The controversial decisions and officiating errors that propelled Equatorial Guinea, amid calls of foul play, into their first ever semifinals, further confirms one more reason, why rarely African referees are at the heart of World Cup games. I believe better education and professionalisation of the art of top refereeing would go a long way to helping. Nigeria has a worse record of not even having one Nigerian referee at the Afcon games.
Ivory Coast can win Afcon on penalties after all
Having lost out to Egypt and Zambia in recent finals on penalties, many thought the formally tagged “eternal underachieving African favourites” Ivory Coast would lose to Ghana in the finals, especially when it went to penalties. But theatrical goalkeeper, Boubacar Barry of Ivory Coast decided otherwise. Here they are finally, African champions in the 21st Century.
Ghana are potential giants of Africa
Ghana’s organisation, youth drive, team spirit, fighting spirit, versatility, modesty, discipline and hunger shown at this Afcon. If maintained, it could be the beginning of domination of the headlines of African soccer. I was very impressed with Christian Atsu and Andre Ayew. What a bundle of talent!
Algerians struggle as favourites
Africa’s best Fifa-ranked team produced a shadow of the form they showed at the 2014 World Cup just months ago as they struggled to cope with the pressure and responsibility of taking hold of a game.
Their renowned compactness to attack, which worked so well against teams from other continents in World Cup Brazil (Germany included) failed them as other Afcon 2015 opponents invited them to play and dominate. They can, however, take solace in having lost to eventual champions, Ivory Coast.
Caf need to get tough
I feel the only way to keep out-of-control fans in check, like the Equatorial Guinea fans at the Afcon, are stringent sanctions. Caf need to be firmer than they were. The sanction meted out for their shameful acts after the defeat to Ghana was barely a tap on the wrist.
However, one could maybe understand the leniency to a nation that amid fear of Ebola came to the rescue all of Africa.
South Africa dare not change their path
All this new South African team needs to improve on now is their ability to not concede after they take the lead and they will go places. Tactically they were well in place and had so much hunger and passion: a quality that was absent in recent years.
The coaching crew impressed with their modern team positioning.