Congratulations to Cote d’Ivoire on their success as the AFCON Cup 2015 winners.
CAF (Confederation of Africa football) have once again managed to serve us a buffet of different sorts: from last minute venue change, to dubious refereeing, crowd trouble, pitch invasion, farcical scenes and passable football.
As Yaya Toure and his colleagues are crowned new Africa Champions, my applause goes out to them, but overall I have reservations about the progress of African football and the standard of football displayed.
Cote d’Ivoire coasted through the tournament, with the individual players never actually producing their best or reaching the heights they have been known for at their various club sides.
Africa and indeed the world only witnessed sporadic displays from Yaya Toure, Gervinho, Tiote (Got injured) Bony and others throughout the tournament, the exception and probably the revelation been Sergio Aurier of PSG, who showed the world what is yet to come from him in the future.
Ghana played some fantastic football, coming back from a defeat in their opening fixture, but in all, one could not but notice that Africa is still behind tactically, organisationally, and sadly, ever more increasingly, in technical ability.
This is the no1 showpiece for Africa; our own European Championship, our Copa Libertadores, our Laliga or Premiership at its best, but sadly however, you could be forgiven if you watched any game in AFCON and you thought you were watching a mid table La-Liga clash, or a relegation battle in the Premiership.
These games were no El-Classicos, nor were they London, Merseyside or Manchester derbies. The games lacked conviction and were not played at the pace of a champions League knock out game or top of the table Premiership clash. (weather was hot though)
There were no new Okochas, Kanus, Abedi Peles, Yeboahs, Roger Millas, Yekinnis or George Weahs for the world to behold, and you could be forgiven for querying FIFA’s decision to give Africa more World Cup slots from a few tournaments ago.
2018 is around the corner, but is Africa ready? Are the federations prepared? Is CAF on a mission?
When would the next generation of talents emerge? Where would they emerge from? Do we even have them at all or in deed? Would Africa produce those wunderkids that would grace the world soccer scene in three years time? Time will tell, but for now, maybe Africa’s best are not yet ready to compete with the world’s best.
FIVE ALIVE!
It a five horse race for two Champions League spots in the Premiership, as one draw, two draws, one win, two draws, one loss, two wins, two losses or a combination of a few of the above separate Southampton, Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool from each other.
Yes! It’s five alive! What a season this is turning into!
As majority of these five teams still have to play each other and play the top two teams (Chelsea and Manchester City) who both cannot sit pretty on top of the table, in a premiership season that will have twists and turns until the final whistle of the very last game on May 24, which includes Manchester City vs Southampton at the Etihad stadium.
Liverpool have regained their form at the perfect time; gunning for FA cup glory timely with the return of Daniel Sturridge to an attacking force that has failed to fire without its top marksman. A change of tactics and a shuffling of personnel, especially at the back has brought Brendan Rogers team almost to the place they left off while fighting for the title last year. Trust that Liverpool would still have a say as to whose corner the title goes to.
Tottenham ‘have one of theirs’ in Harry Kane who has been one of the highlights of the 2015 premiership season thus far. Pochettino’s boys have shown resilience and physical endurance that has enabled them overcome giants this season and they don’t look like letting off steam anytime soon. Chelsea beware: this Tottenham team is young and very hungry for success, and would be there until the last day of the season too.
King Louis Van Gaal is still building his empire at the theatre of dreams, but his policy of ‘perform to play’ seem to be unnerving even the seasoned gladiators at Old Trafford. Falcao who rarely misses has started to fumble from 5 yards, and even Van Persie’s confidence seem to have taken a knock for many weeks now. If Man Utd will be in Europe next season, LVG has to sort out his players egos more than anything else.
Southampton under Ronald Koeman, seem to be getting better each time you see them play, and have developed a system that teams are finding hard to play against. With a philosophy of ‘youth football’ and the tactical brevity of one of Johan Cryuff’s students, Southampton keep knocking on the door of champions league football each week, and with the honours of conceding the least goals in the premiership so far, it’s hard to bet against them achieving that at the end of the season.
Sadly Arsenal (alongside Liverpool) have conceded the most goals of the premiership top 7 teams. Arsene Wenger needs to find a way to stop leaking goals, and fast as well. The Arsenal that won numerous titles both in England and Europe were the ‘one nil to the Arsenal team’ and once they scored you, it was hard to get anything off them. Today, the current Arsenal team play good football but have not been able to replicate the successes of the previous Arsenal teams. Can Arsene deliver another Champions league spot this year or is it goodbye Wednesday games and welcome Thursday games?
At the top, Chelsea and Manchester City have to be careful, and continually glance over their shoulders incessantly as the race for the 3rd and 4th spots heat up, otherwise they might just get too involved with each other that they fail to realise when the others catch up with them.
I am sure that this season has the potential to become one of the most dramatic finale in recent history and these two teams have a starring role to play.
ATLETICO THUMP REAL IN MADRID
‘If you don’t have a defence, you cannot win anything’ ask Brazil at Espana 82, and now ask Real Madrid at the Vincente Caldron against Atletico on Sunday. With Pepe and Sergio Ramos missing from the Real team, their defence was exposed by Atletico Madrid over the weekend.
And as Atletico drubbed Real 4-0, it shows that any team can lose a game at any time, and any team can progress to win the champions League at any time; injuries, fatigue, loss of form and suspensions may weaken even the favourites and contribute to a minnow winning the Cup.