FINALS BEFORE THE FINAL!

Story written by Patrick Kamanga

FINALS BEFORE THE FINAL!

Like their other previous clashes, the titanic battle between the Algeria’s Desert Warriors and Cote D’ Ivore’s Elephants did not disappoint. Expected to be a tight tactical game of wits between the two French coaches; Christian Gourcouf and Herve Renard, the cagey affair opened up into an end to end cliff hanger as both teams raised their game perhaps sensing the importance of the moment. 

French connection; Renard outfoxed the more experienced Gourcouf

This was a third meeting between these two giants, the first being in 1990 when hosts Algeria blew away their West African rivals 3-0 enroute to their first ever win, with the Ivorians returning the favour by the same margin two years later in Senegal.

Is Cote D’ Ivore’s 3-1 win over Algeria therefore a good omen? Perhaps! The Ivorians have been improving with every match and have shown great character coming from behind severally in their two one all draws against Guinea and Mali, then produced a tactical masterstroke in their final group game to overcome fellow West African giants, Cameroon.

Apart from their tactical discipline, what worked for them in their decisive win over Algeria was the return of the mercurial AS Roma forward Gervinho, a key player who had received a red card in their opening group game. With team Captain Yaya Toure positioned deep in a protective role as the anchorman, Gervinho's presence was instrumental and was the key! His intelligent runs into enemy territory as well as the link-up play he provided, holding the ball well on many occasions thus giving teammates the time to position themselves or regroup made a world of difference. 

Gervinho made all the difference

Another player who has been pivotal for the Ivorians is goalkeeper Sylvain Gbouhou, a big unit who has been phenomenal throughout the tournament. He has been a revelation because the goalkeeping position in particular, has ironically been a major glaring weakness for the Ivorian national team for the longest time, since Alain Gouamene, a veteran of many campaigns left the stage at the 2000 edition. Gbouhou perhaps made the save of the tournament when he denied Arbi El Soudani a deserved equalizer by blocking his point blank shot with Algeria on the ascendancy in the second half. Gbouhou’s unbelievable save proved pivotal and was what swung the pendulum in their favour because it came at a time when the Ivory Coast were soaking up wave after wave of attack during a period of sustained pressure by Algeria. Moments later, Yaya Toure’s pin point free kick from outside the eighteen was cleverly headed by new club mate Wilfred Bony, who gingerly spun the ball into the roof of the net beyond Rais M’bouli flailing hand in goal. Bony had been relatively quiet for most of the tournament apart from a few flashes of genius, one of which was a Ronaldhinho style “elastico” nutmeg against a Guinean defender but there was no holding him back on the night. His two headers were clinical and typical of a top striker at the height of his powers, a sight that must have made the his Manchester City paymasters, the Al Mansour brothers and Coach Manuel Pelligrini gleaming at the very prospect of unleashing him upon the English Premier League!

The Elephants hope to invoke history and emulate the class of 1992

“Less is best and substance is always preferable to style” best describes this new generation of Elephants, as they are set to eclipse their star studded predecessors who stumbled numerously on the grand stage, earning the title of “perennial under-achievers!” This Ivorian team is increasingly looking like the real deal and they are now most pundits’ favourites to win the tournament, an opinion that the Ghanaians would love to have the last word about. 

Ghanians will want to have the last word

After their stellar show in Brazil, Algeria has largely been disappointing at this tournament and their key players simply never showed up mentally. Their most conspicuous flops were F.C Porto forward, Yacine Brahimi as well as Valencia midfielder Sofiane Feghouli. El Soudani and Islam Slimani played their hearts out mostly from the bench but the team as whole was disjointed and relied on individual brilliance rather than the strength of the collective unit.

Ghana’s Black Stars have grown from strength to strength and have exhibited a lot of character to overcome a disappointing lose to Senegal in their first game. They went on to register two “come from behind” victories in their subsequent games against Algeria and South Africa and headed into the knockouts as group leaders. 

Buoyed and full of confidence, they were on another level and simply outclassed their Guinean opponents at the quarterfinals.

Lessons well learnt, the hawk eyed Avram Grant produced a tactical master class

Listening to Ghana’s Coach, former Chelsea and Israel Manager Avram Grant in the pre-match press briefing, he seemed to have grown and learnt a lot from the 2008 UEFA Champions League final lose to Manchester United and he was not taking any chances. His tactical setup was spot on, deploying two holding midfielders to protect his defense. Well aware of the Guineans technical skills, their passing game and overall ability on the ball, the Black Stars were in no mood to compromise. They pressed their opponents, virtually suffocating and denied them any time and space on the ball. Guinea’s goalkeeper Naby Yattara epitomized the kind of day they were having as his frustration bubbled to the surface and turned violent when he blatantly shoved Ghana’s Christian Atsu to the ground to earn a yellow card. With his team three goals down, a “Kung Fu” style flying kick straight from a Jet Li movie by the same player on striker Asamoah Gyan who was then bearing down on goal in the dying minutes, earned him a straight red!

Overcoming the stigma of the Ebola epidemic that has ravaged their country and had them treated like pariahs during the qualifiers, then navigating through the preliminaries from a tough group where nobody even gave them a fleeting chance is testament enough of the Guineans’ potential. 

The new age Sylli Nationale were outclassed but will take plenty of lessons from the AFCON

Overall, the inexperience of the young Sylli Nationale was evident on the day as they were overawed by the occasion and simply couldn’t handle the pressure of playing a much more formidable adversary at this advanced stage in the tournament. The buildup to Ghana’s second goal summarized their state of mind as a series of blunders; a poor throw ball, then a panicked clearance by Baissama Sanko in defense miscued a clearance straight to the path of an Kwesi Appiah who was only too glad to oblige!  They however left the competition with their chins high knowing that the experience gained will come in handy in the coming years as they are clearly a team to watch in future tournaments.   

   

Ghana progressed to set up a semi final matchup with their western neighbours, the Cote D’ Ivore. The Black Stars versus the Elephants is a titanic battle of epic proportions, a repeat of the 1992 AFCON final in Senegal. Their two other meetings were during the group stage at the 1996 edition in South Africa, a bruising encounter which Ghana prevailed with a 2-0 victory.  The Ivorians returned the favour by the same margin at the 2000 AFCON. The two Cocoa producing nations are bitter rivals and this game with its high stakes with both sides desperate for continental honours, sets up a mouth watering encounter.

This encounter brings to mind the violent showdowns in 1993-94. With repercussions from a slump in cocoa prices at the world market from the mid 80’s having adverse economic effects perhaps the catalyst, tempers flared after Ghana’s Asante Kotoko eliminated Cote D’ Ivore’s Asec Mimosa in the semi-finals of the Africa Club Championship in November 1993 with the ensuing violence resulting in 40 fatalities. The crowd trouble boiled over into tensions and blanket revenge attacks which escalated into a mini-ethnic civil war. This created a refugee situation overnight as migrant populations in the hundreds of thousands from either nation were forced to decamp and troop back home across borders for fear of further reprisals. So regional derbies don’t come any bigger than this two giants in the African context and their rivalry is akin to Brazil versus Argentina in Latin America or Holland versus Germany in Central Europe. Fans should therefore brace for some major fireworks!

Hosts Equitorial Guinea’s fairy tale run has not been without controversy. Credit must be given where it’s due because this tiny oil rich Central African nation pulled off the impossible in organizing a fairly decent tournament in 52 days, no mean achievement by any standards when no other country even wanted to imagine taking the responsibility! Qatar had even been put in place as the last option. 

President Teodora Obiang saved CAF's blushes

Most keen observers and neutrals however are tempted to think that the hosts have had dubious decisions go their way because they came to the tournament’s rescue, bailing out CAF after intended hosts Morocco pulled out at the eleventh hour. Ironically, they had been eliminated earlier in the qualifying rounds when they fielded an ineligible player, incurring CAF’s wrath. The team consists mostly of Spanish born players, who claim a modicum of Equito-Guinean affiliation with their naturalization then hastily expedited which in itself reeks of rigging and flies in the face of fair play rules. This notwithstanding, however, their earlier transgression was swiftly forgiven and swept under the carpet when President Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasoga took matters into his hands and extended CAF a lifeline! In a further show of benevolence, the President has gone on to pay for match tickets thus enabling the local population to view the games on a free.

The penalty awarded late in Equitorial Guinea’s game against Gabon, with their opponents pressing for an equalizer equally seemed soft, effectively killing the game in their favour and thus sent them into the knockouts. The same was to happen late in the quarter final game against the much fancied Tunisians. Conspiracy theories or not, the Carthage Eagles have themselves to blame because they had the ability and enough quality within their ranks to kill off this game early and comfortably but seemed to have grossly underestimated their opponents and simply disregarded them, with dire consequences. They took a 69^th minute lead via forward Akaichi then complacently sat back. With the game in stoppage time, Tunisian full back Ali Maaloul simply needed to usher the Equito-Guinean winger Ivan Bolado away from goal towards the byline. Indiscipline and lack of concentration resulted in the most minimal of contacts, enough though to send the player tumbling and thus gave the referee ample reason to award the penalty which former Real Madrid youth player and dead ball specialist, Javier Balboa comfortably tucked in. Tunisia’s Belgian Coach, Georges Leekens should have calmed his players down and regrouped especially with their opponents having substituted their two fullbacks for attackers in their quest for an equalizer. Leekens was livid and too emotionally distraught just as his players were to even see the opportunity! Playing against an opponent whose defense had been stripped to bare bones, they should have kept going and taken the game to their adversaries. 

Javier Balboa curls a beautiful free kick to put Tunisia to the sword

With an equalizer at the death and the wind now under their sails, Equitorial Guinea however, sensing opportunity went on an extra time onslaught and a fair nudge by a Tunisian defender again earned the hosts a controversial foul just outside the eighteen. “Thank you very much!”, the gleaming Balboa seemed to say and duly obliged by carving in a beautifully crafted free kick that culled over the wall and beyond Mathlouthi in goal to send the hosts into the semis and the capacity crowd into pandemonium! With the Tunisians ostensibly enraged with the blatant decisions that went against them and now baying for blood with intent to shred Mauritian referee Rajindraparsad Seechurn to pulp, a hefty security cordon sufficed to escort him out of the field. 

The Mauritian referee required a human shield to escape the wrath of the enraged Tunisians

In the semi-final game against their Central African neighbours D.R Congo, the Equitorial Guineans have their plates full and shall require more than luck or even the graces of the men in black, to prevail. 

Equito-Guineans in seventh heaven after their controversial win

In a battle of the Congos, the D.R.C overcame a lackadaisical start and a two goal deficit early in the second half to produce arguably their best game of the tournament, to earn a 4-2 win over their cross river namesakes, the Republic of Congo. With their two capital cities of Kinshasa and Brazzaville separated by the massive River Congo, the two rarely see eye to eye and it was surprising that the game was played in a calm temperament. After an impressive tactical battle against Algeria at their last group game, most neutrals were expecting the Leopard to come out with guns blazing from the start but eventually needed a jolt to wake them from their slumber, making a late four goal rally. 

The Leopards mauled their cross river neighbours

With the controversy surrounding the host’s passage into the semis, most viewers would probably put their weight behind the Congolese, hoping that they make it to their first final since 1974.

Florent Ibenge got the best of Claude Le Roy

The two semi-final games, both regional derbies promise plenty of fireworks and will essentially be the finals before the final!