By Greg Evans
So, here we stand. Just one game away from finding out who will win the 2012 Africa Cup of
Nations a tournament which stampeded out of the blocks with a thrilling start, but has since turned
into something of a pale imitation of itself with a few drab games starting to crop up as the
stakes get higher.
The accolades keep coming for Pep Guardiola's Barcelona as they were yesterday named the Laureus
team of the year. Here is what Barcelona President Sandro Rosell had to say after the award
ceremony:
"The nominations of Abidal, Messi and the club are an honour, and it will help us keep on
working and thinking about how to keep up this level in the future.
After winning their respective groups, Ivory Coast and Ghana are on a crash course for a
high-profile final at the African Cup of Nations, but there is still work to be done before the top
two African nations do battle for the continent's top prize.
The Elephants, one of two sides to secure all nine points during the group stage, might have to
go through both host countries to reach the final.
By Greg Evans
Earlier in the week the group stages of this year's Africa Cup of Nations concluded and, before
we go any further and the sadly unavoidable 'why cover this pointless tournament?/the quality's
terrible' mentality begins to set in, let me just go on record as saying that some of the
performances and matches I have seen in the past two weeks have eclipsed anything I have seen in
our beloved Premier League for a very long time.
Ep.23 Deadline Daze by Off The Post on Mixcloud The Pod lived the ultimate football punditry dream
last night – recording whilst all the frenetic bedlam of Deadline Day played out. With producer
Stu alerting us of live developments throughout, the Pod's narrative zig-zagged back and forth like
Bellamy's rubber band dance in the FA [.
By Chris Wright
Hands up. We've been a bit lapse with our coverage of the African Nations so far. That's going
to change as soon as the group stages are over but, for now, you'll have to make do with dribs and
drabs including this startling piece of cheatery spotted during co-host nation Equatorial Guinea's
dramatic late win to send much-fancied Senegal tumbling out of the tournament yesterday.
Group B: African Cup of Nations 2012 Preview (Angola, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Sudan) is a
post from: Just Football
Just Football's team-by-team African Cup of Nations 2012
group previews continues now with a look at Group B. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to
Just Football to get all the latest news from Just Football at the African Cup of Nations and
beyond.
PUMA launched the Algeria 2012/13 home kit in November along with those of the other African
nations soccer programs it sponsors. As Les Fennecs prepare for the second round of the 2014 FIFA
World Cup African zone qualifiers next year, the Algeria PUMA 2012/13 away jersey has also been
launched. Here is a detailed look [.
Last night news broke that Chelsea will be willing to listen for offers of around £20m for
Fernando Torres in January as long as someone can match his reported £150K per week wages. The
story continued that Chelsea had already put the feelers out around Europe amongst the elite to see
if anyone wanted to take him.
The Africa Artist Series. Created for the African Cup of Nations.
In an effort to truly harness the identity of different African nations participating in the
upcoming 2012 African Cup of Nations (co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea), PUMA called upon
local African artists to symbolically represent their nation's essence by designing respective
football shirts for the tournament.
By Chris Wright
Puma held a bit of a bash at the Design Museum in London last night to formally unveil their
latest nine creations for next January's African Cup of Nations there were originally supposed to
be ten on display, though Algeria's kit was omitted after they failed to qualify for the
competition.
The stage is set for next year's Africa Cup of Nations which will be co-hosted by Gabon and
Equatorial Guinea after the final round of fixtures played this weekend confirmed the 16 nations
that will grace the 28th edition of the continent's ultimate footballing tournament.
The 16 nations are: Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea,
Morocco, Libya, Ghana, Angola, Botswana, Tunisia, Sudan, Zambia and Niger.
By Chris Wright
Yesterday's North London derby itself was a largely good-natured, entertaining affair (save for
Bacary Sagna's unfortunate, inadvertent leg-break), with Kyle Walker scoring the victory for
Tottenham sweeping a 25-yard winner past Wojciech Szzczccsczczzccesny with 17-minutes left to
play.
By Chris Wright
Yesterday's North London derby itself was a largely good-natured, entertaining affair (save for
Bacary Sagna's unfortunate, inadvertent leg-break), with Kyle Walker scoring the victory for
Tottenham sweeping a 25-yard winner past Wojciech Szzczccsczczzccesny with 17-minutes left to
play.
By Chris Wright
Fair to say it's been on the cards for a good while now, but it still sounds a little strange to
say out loud Arsenal have actually signed a real, walking-talking, senior professional
footballer!
According to Arsene Wenger, Gervinho actually landed last Thursday after completing a medical
but was then sent home again to spend a few days with his wife and young children before returning
to England to train with those remaining members of the Gunners' squad that haven't flown out on
for a pre-season tour of Malaysia.
Villas Boas- What can we expect? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Yet another season gone by, and the post-season review brings back moments from the seasons long
gone. Arsenal, living up to their tag of chokers, relinquishing yet another strong position in the
league inspite of showing flashes of absolute ingenuity, Chelsea losing steam in the December
period, (not because of the Cup of African Nations though) and then firing their manager for
avoidable and trivial errors and then the Big 4 similar to the 2009-2010 season, were given a real
run for their money by hugely improved sides like Tottenham and Manchester City.
African club football gets very little coverage in Europe so I thought it would be interesting
to delve into this little known world for another blogpost.
On Saturday the East African club cup begins in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Twelve clubs from ten
African nations compete for the coveted trophy.
In 1978 the president of Uganda (or to give him his full title His Excellency, President for
Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor) was Idi Amin, the country was embroiled in a war with
neighbours Tanzania and Idi Amin was still twelve months from relinquishing power. It was also the
last time that Uganda's national football team (The Cranes) had qualified for an African Cup of
Nations.
So as the 1970's came to a close, ending one of the most politically turbulent decades in the
history of sports, the world behld with horror the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979,
which....
...wait a minute. I'm forgetting something. There was a World Cup in 1978. And everybody came.
The African Nations Championship (or CHAN) is unique amongst international football tournaments
in that nations are restricted to selecting only domestic players in their squads. The 2011 edition
of this tournament begins this week in Sudan with the hosts taking on Gabon in Khartoum.
As the competition only allows the selection of domestically based players the standards of each
respective international side is a little different to "full internationals".
Aston Villa have completed the signing of Jean Makoun from Lyon for a fee thought to be in the
region of €6m* possibly rising by a further €3m depending on performances. The 27 year old
brings a wealth of experience with almost 250 Ligue 1 appearance, more than
50 European appearances and 56 caps for Cameroon including four
African Nations Championships and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
