Angola - Most popular for 2008
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It seems like just yesterday we were blogging about the finals of the African Cup of Nations
tournament in Ghana.
But things move quickly in the world of football.
Today, news that the host nation of the 2010 African Cup of Nations, Angola, is confident their
infrastructure will be ready in time for the tournament.
The most important qualifier for each region during the next week:
AFC: 9/6 - Saudi Arabia vs Iran
Three teams in Group 2 are expected to compete for the two automatic bids; they are these two and
South Korea. Iran struggled a bit during the last round, waiting until the final matchday to
advance.
Egypt vs Angola just has such a charming nature about it. African football's superpower versus the
new kid on the block. The most successful team in Cup of Nations history against a nation making
only their fourth ever appearance. The current champions taking on a side that has never before
made the knockout phase.
FIFA have just released their new world ranking table and there are some surprises.
Coming in at first place is newly crowned Euro 2008 champions Spain, who knocked former #1
Argentina off the top with their exceptional performance in Austria/Switzerland.
Argentina had held the top spot since October 2007.
I'll tell you what, this year's edition of the African Cup of Nations is getting better and better.
The quality of some of the goals scored has been absolutely fantastic and yesterday we saw more of
the same.
The 2010 World Cup hosts, South Africa, earned a point out of nothing against Angola as substitute
Elrio van Heerdeen blistered a long-range effort in the 87th minute to equalize the game at 1-1,
where it would end.
Right, catching up on what is, to most of you, very old news. Let's start with Andranik, the
Iran midfielder picked up on a free. Incidentally, I've seen him before: Iran v Angola, Leipzig,
World Cup 2006. We were there, baking in the German sunshine. Anyway. He looks quite
good on YouTube (doesn't everyone?
From The Independent:
He terrorised Premier League defenders for over a decade, now he has a different challenge to
face – but none of it is as important to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as building schools in
Africa.
After officially retiring from a knee injury 10 months ago, Solskjaer has now been given the job of
reserve team manager at Manchester United by Sir Alex Ferguson.
The venues are being scrubbed clean, the tickets are printed and the cities are bubbling with
anticipation.
The African Cup of Nations is but a mere 2 weeks and 2 days away from taking over the minds and
hearts of football fans around the globe.
Cup finalists begin their pre-tournament preparations in earnest this weekend, led by defending
champions Egypt who host Namibia in a friendly.
Manchester United are looking smarter and smarter for their interest in Manucho as the Angolan
striker scored twice in seventeen minutes in the second half to propel his country to a
come-from-behind 3-1 win yesterday over Senegal.
Manucho now has three goals in two games in this edition of the African Cup of Nations, Angola has
four points and is sitting in the driver's seat to qualification for the quarterfinals, and Senegal
is without their head coach as he resigned after the loss.
Both teams said they were playing to win the game. Both teams only needed a point to advance the
quarterfinals. What was the result? As I predicted here a few days ago, the Tunisia-Angola match
yesterday ended in a boring 0-0 draw. The crowd was depressingly small, it was a hot afternoon, the
match was played at an incredibly slow pace, and there were only a few real chances all game long.
After squandering an early 2-0 lead, Cameroon needed a 92nd minute goal from Stade Rennais
midfielder Stéphane Mbia to beat Tunisia today and advance to the semifinals. The extra time goal
was Mbia's second of the game and spoiled any hope of a Tunisian upset, which was only made
possible in the first place after an 81st minute tally from Yassine Chikhaoui levelled the match at
2-2.
