Prudence may yet pay in sparkling festival of football
The supposed attacking flair of African football has been a myth for over a decade now. Although you could make a case for the tournament in Ghana in 2008, which yielded 99 goals in 32 games, at least part of that was down to thrashings handed out to Namibia, Benin and Guinea at various stages; it didn’t have the end-to-end thrill-a-minute feel of this tournament.
Much has been written expressing reservations about the suitability of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to host the tournament, but those doubts melted away, temporarily at least, last week. Equatorial Guinea, pummelled by Senegal, but somehow still standing, took the lead just after the hour, conceded an equaliser in the 90th minute, and then scored a winner with a brilliant, swerving 25-yarder from Kily deep in injury-time. A player from the fourth division scoring a goal like that in those circumstances to take his side to the quarter-final? That’s why sport makes for awful films: this was too ludicrous to be credible, and yet it happened, and prompted scenes of astonishing celebration.
Yet it paled by comparison with the Gabonese sequel two days later. The plot was familiar: the same only more so. Morocco went in 1-0 up at half-time, but the arrival of Daniel Cousin for the co-hosts turned the game their way. Shot after shot rained in, and eventually, after 77 minutes, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang volleyed home. Fans poured into the running track and it was only two minutes later that the game restarted. A mere 36 seconds after that, Cousin hooked in. That was dramatic enough, but in the final minute the brave Gambian referee judged that Charly Moussono had handled a Younes Belhanda shot: penalty. Houssine Kharja converted, and, as the local commentator said, in a tone that suggested he was presiding over a funeral, “un silence terrible” reigned.
But seven minutes into injury-time, Gabon won a free-kick to the left side of the box. This was Bruno Mbanangoye’s moment, and the Dinamo Minsk midfielder took it, whipping the ball into the top corner. It was a goal to raise a lump in the throat of even the most jaundiced cynic: a magnificent end to a quite wonderful game ( the third of four direct free-kicks scored in the tournament — not including Khaled Korbi’s for Tunisia against Morocco, which was clearly intended as a cross; there were none in Angola two years ago, which suggests the Comequa ball — a variant of the Tango 12 to be used in the Euros — is far superior to the accursed Jabulani that blighted both the last Cup of Nations and the World Cup).
Only two sides have stood aloof from the excitement: Ivory Coast and Ghana. Both won their opening games 1-0. Both won their second games 2-0. It’s been effective, often attritional stuff, and it represents the caution of favourites determined not to let this opportunity slip. Stylistically, Ghana are set up to play deep and strike on the break, Asamoah Gyan—– much more effective against Mali than he had been against Botswana, suggesting his calf is recovering — holding the ball up for the likes of Dede Ayew, Kwadwoh Asamoah and Sulley Muntari to run onto.
With Ivory Coast, though, the issue is more one of attitude. Three times in a row they’ve come to the tournament as favourites only to be defeated, and there is a clear resolve on the part of this generation not to let another opportunity slip, even if that means sitting on 1-0 leads against Sudan and Burkina Faso. “That’s what the gaffer said,” explained the defender Sol Bamba in an accent that betrays he learned his English at Dunfermline and Hiberninan. “We’ve got some very good players up front so we’ve just got to keep the back door shut.”
He was part of a defence that conceded twice from set plays in the space of five minutes as Ivory Coast lost to Algeria in the quarter-final two years ago. “Some of the players, and I was there, have that in their heads but we don’t think about that,” he said. “Last time we didn’t have a tight defence; this time we want to keep the back door shut.”
It is that phrase — apparently picked up from the former Hibs coach John Hughes — that defines this Ivory Coast. In a free-spirited tournament, it may be what wins it for them.
