AFCON 2013: Preliminary Skirmishes over!

By Omoseye Bolaji

As the latest edition of the glitzy Afcon reached its crunch stages (quarter finals et al), the world marveled as SEVEN of the eight quarter finalists happened to be from west Africa. Facile comments that “west Africa is very much a powerhouse in African football” were spewed out; quite understandably, under the circumstances.

Hence South Africa, the host country (from Southern Africa) looked almost like the odd man out as the identities of the eight quarter finalists were unfurled: Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, Cape Verde and Ghana.

Whilst this appears to be something of a “coup” for west Africa, on a personal note I would not like to read too much into this; for me it smirks of some co-incidence really. Why? We know the quirks and idiosyncracies of football, and anything can happen. For example, in their crucial third match of the tourney, Togo could well have been out if Tunisia had converted the penalty they were awarded in the second half.

Similarly, for the hosts Bafana Bafana, hearts were in the mouths of millions as Morocco took a 2-1 lead with much of the game gone. What if South Africa had not managed to equalize; which without being churlish could have well been the case in light of so many disappointing results in the wake of the Championship itself? In any event Morocco, exited the competition despite managing to draw all their games, and not losing any.

Ironically Angola (also from Southern Africa) found themselves bowing out of the tourney mainly after a damaging 2-0 loss to South Africa; a southern African team halting the progress of another southern African squad! We might also note that with TWO northern African teams, Algeria and Tunisia, placed in the same group – alongside mighty Ivory Coast, it was always on the cards that important casualties would fall by the wayside here. In this case two adroit northern African countries found themselves eliminated.

Another twist was added to the scenario with the unexpected progress of un-fancied Cape Verde and Togo (both part of west Africa, as it were). Few expected them to progress to the quarter finals, but that is what they went on to do. It appears there is always this subtle element of undermining teams supposed to be “minnows” – we recollect that even Ethiopia was rather underestimated in the beginning which could have had disastrous effects for the likes of Zambia and Nigeria.

Could have had? Indeed it can be argued that Zambia (also a southern African nation) – and defending champions to boot – exited the tournament early because of what seemed to be an insipid, shocking performance against Ethiopia (a draw in their opening game). Hence Zambia, and Angola found themselves out of Afcon after only the preliminary matches. The exhilarating thing is that hosts South Africa, buoyed by their progress into the quarter finals, found themselves dreaming of going all the way like they did so brilliantly in 1996 (when they also hosted the tournament)

Many South African fans found themselves reminiscing on the situation in 1996 when Bafana Bafana met Algeria at the quarter final stage; a match in which “Shoes” Moshoeu emerged the hero after scoring a superb second goal (SA won 2-1) But let it not be forgotten that Mark Fish, the fluid central defender had bagged the first goal for his country by venturing upfront against the wishes of his then coach Clive Barker!

At that time (1996), when South Africa met Ghana in the semi finals few expected the hosts to win as easily as they did (3-0). After all Ghana paraded greats like Abedi Pele and Tony Yeboah then. But with Moshoeu again playing out of his skin and scoring two excellent goals, and Shaun Bartlett almost like a battering ram netting an exquisite goal too. South Africa swept into the final where Tunisia was put to the sword 2-0.

Could Bafana replicate such thrilling progress in 2013? That is what the world wanted to see this time around. As hosts, and the only “non-west African” country left in the tourney the expectations were high – as South Africa got set to meet Mali in the quarter finals…