It was like a repetition of last year’s consolidation match of AFCON when Mali settled much optimistic Ghana on the fourth place on Saturday. Black Stars finished their AFCON 2013 journey in the same fashion as they did last year. Mali secured third spot in the tournament which is not a bad performance either. Notably, Mali has not won any AFCON title in the last thirty years, and this year too, it could not overcome Nigeria in the semis, but despite that, even a third place in a tournament is not bad for any team. For Ghana, it is more than a defeat this time, coz they have been playing in the semis for last four years but could not win the title. This year, they were overshadowed by Burkina Faso in the penalty shootout in the semis. This is the first time Burkina Faso has entered into the finals of Africa’s highest soccer event. Factually, Ghana has won four AFCON titles till date and their last triumph was in 1982, while for Mali, their best of the event was in 1972 when they … [Read more...]
Nigeria reaches in AFCON final, but no deal with organizers to broadcast in Nigeria
Maybe Nigeria is on the threshold of making a history after a gap of more than a decade by winning Africa’s biggest soccer title AFCON on Sunday. But, there is a bad news for more than 160 million soccer fans at home coz they may not be able to watch the final live as there is no deal made with tournament’s official broadcaster to stream it live in Nigeria. This perhaps could be the biggest shock if it happens at last. Actually, it did not happen all of a sudden coz no one at home had imagined that their team would even reach at the knockout stage, but when it entered in the final, broadcasting organization of Nigeria started making best of their affords to get the telecast right of the game. Even they had never thought their team could be in the final coz Nigerian team has been performing desperately in recent times. Moreover, there are many rumors in the air expressing two different opinions on the same, like, on one side, confederation of African football is saying, they have … [Read more...]
Ten-man Ethiopia restrict Zambia in their AFCON inauguration match
It was an eventful match where most of the actions went against of Ethiopia who was playing their first AFCON match after a gap of 31 years, yet they manage to restrict defending champion Zambia to a 1-1 draw. With this match, all Group C teams have played their first match, and more interestingly, each of them has an equal number of points. Overall, the performance of Ethiopia was much better than expected winner considering the loss of their goalie after he was red carded for a wild chest-high tackle. Moreover, Addis Ababa club also missed a penalty midway when Saladin Seid’s impeded shot was gleefully punched back by Zambia goalie Mweene depriving Ethiopia one goal. Though, Chipolopolo gained the lead right in the 24th minute when Emmanuel Emineke’s fast reaction deceived defender in taking a clever flick from Brown Ideye, but none of the Nigerian could enhance their one goal lead thereafter. Defending champion’s dreams were further shattered when Burkina Faso equalized the lead … [Read more...]