African Cup of Nations - blog

Bruised Ghana keep out of the spotlight

by Paul Myers

Article published on the 2010-01-17 Latest update 2010-01-19 14:37 TU

Côte d'Ivoire players celebrate the second goal against Ghana
(Photo: Reuters)

Bonito I may be, newshound I am ... I sniffed out the Ghana football players missing from the mixed zone on Friday night in Cabinda, finding them in a hotel in Luanda.

Because I am a wonderful observer of the deal, I did not go and approach them as they sat scoffing their supper. Anyway, I was hungry.

And there might have been the small matter that I was outnumbered by a squad of muscular young men.

Perhaps I should have phoned up the other disgruntled journalists from Friday night. We could have made a fight of it.

That might have been a good brawl. An incident. But that’s not what we are here for.

Everyone knows Ghana lost againt Côte d’Ivoire. Everyone knows Ghana need to beat Burkina Faso in Luanda in a few days to advance to the next stage.

They’re already bruised by their defeat. Maybe Burkina Faso will do the battering.

Egypt disposed of Mozambique 2-0 on Saturday night to advance to the last eight from Group C.

It just highlighted the well-oiled machine that is Egypt. But they only seem to be smooth in the Africa Cup of Nations.

When it comes to qualifying for the World Cup, it all goes awry. Very bizarre.

In Lubango on Sunday, Cameroon, the team Egypt beat in the final two years ago, need to show some diligence against Zambia if they don’t want to be bundled out of the group stages.

That would be a shock if Cameroon don’t qualify. Bad for them as they entered as one of the favourites. Good for a tournament. You don’t always want to see the usual suspects.

Unless of course you support one of the usual suspects.

Munificent world soul that I am, I just want football to be the winner.