African Cup of Nations 2021 (played in 2022) | Final: Senegal v Egypt, 7 PM UK time

minoo-utd

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Angola is a southern country. And you also won it in Burkina Faso in 1998.

The common thing in all these is that you had a team almost exclusively made of players evolving in Egypt and with big experience of African club competitions.

Now half of your starting eleven are playing in Europe. It’s not easy for them to adapt to the weather and the conditions.
It could be this yes. Also Quiroz is terrible manager.
 

Gio

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Yeah all this talk about most of the football being garbage, is garbage talk

It's been low scoring (by the way, equating low scoring games to boring/low quality affairs is American sports fan talk) so far. But I can identify 4 games that were actually good and engrossing, and I've not watched as many as I would have liked:
Aye, most international tournaments start off slow. Particularly the ones where it goes from 24 to 16 teams, where big teams don't want to peak early and others know simply keeping it tight could be enough to get through the group stages. 32 into 16 or going from 16 into 8 was a better design for encouraging teams to have a go.
 

Fanatic 00237

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For the record, Garoua is close to a terrorism hot spot in Nigeria.

I mention this because I briefly explored going to watch this in person, but my cousin threatened to out my travel to the entire (drama queen full) family if I went...
Nah, I think Garoua is safe mate. It's a neighbouring region but not that close. As far as I know, there has never been a real terror threat in Garoua.


I'm in the US, but most of my family is Nigerian.

Border restrictions within Africa are nil (apart from some countries imposing quarantine for COVID reasons). However the travel within Cameroon is problematic. Bad roads, some routes blocked due to the Anglophone conflict... So it would have been a struggle to get to Garoua from the major cities of Douala and Yaounde... And that's without the threat of terrorists a few miles across the border...
Looks like I could be your travel guide here :). Well, travel from Garoua to the other main cities is best done by flight, the distance to the other towns hosting matches makes road travel really very long.

Concerning Covid restrictions, it's like you said, if you're tested negative you would have absolutely no problem entering the country and going around.
 
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Fanatic 00237

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Yeah all this talk about most of the football being garbage, is garbage talk

It's been low scoring (by the way, equating low scoring games to boring/low quality affairs is American sports fan talk) so far. But I can identify 4 games that were actually good and engrossing, and I've not watched as many as I would have liked:

Cameroon - Burkina Faso
Cape Verde - Ethiopia
Nigeria - Egypt
Algeria - Sierra Leone

Senegal - Zimbabwe and Sudan - Guinea Bissau were definitely eyesores. Have not seen the rest, but odds of all of them being eyesores is low.

Still early days too! The weather is hot and humid in most stadiums, it'll take a few days for the players to acclimate.
Adding to that, isn't it always the case in the first round of most of these tournaments? Usually due to a combination of factors: players still gelling together, matches between or vs lower quality teams, best players still getting into their stride, etc. I would expect the quality to step up naturally as the tournament progresses.

And by the way, I love the good work you're doing in this thread.
 

Idxomer

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Angola is a southern country. And you also won it in Burkina Faso in 1998.

The common thing in all these is that you had a team almost exclusively made of players evolving in Egypt and with big experience of African club competitions.

Now half of your starting eleven are playing in Europe. It’s not easy for them to adapt to the weather and the conditions.
It's also because most of the best players between 2006-2010 played for the same club and it was a golden generation. More players now may be playing in Europe but apart from Salah, they are nowhere near the quality of the team back then.
 

adexkola

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Nah, I think Garoua is safe mate. It's a neighbouring region but not that close. As far as I know, there has never been a real terror threat in Garoua.



Looks like I could be your travel guide here :). Well, travel from Garoua to the other main cities is best done by flight, the distance to the other towns hosting matches makes road travel really very long.

Concerning Covid restrictions, it's like you said, if you're tested negative you would have absolutely no problem entering the country and going around.
Thank you for the clarification :), it's great to hear there are no security concerns in general in that region of the country. How about the Anglophone situation, is that under wraps at the moment?

I've been to Douala and Limbe before, but a trip to Garoua from either Douala or Yaounde would have entailed a flight with Camair-Co (the first time I flew with them was the last time :lol:) or a 20 hour road trip from Douala/Yaounde, which I'm getting too old for...
 

Rasendori

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We go again!


Interesting to see how Haller and Zaha play. Our Bailly and Hannibal will most likely feature for their sides.
"Which game are you looking forward to the most?"

I have to say Tunisia vs Mali. I'm a bit gutted with Sekou Koita's cruciate ligament rupture as he's one of the reasons I was looking forward to Mali. The omission of Cheick Doucoure was another blow for me as I was really looking forward to his performance. The latter was always a possibility as Mali's midfield is stacked.
 

the_cliff

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Hannibal starting against Mali, a very good test against imo the best midfield in the tournament.

Samassekou and Haidara starting for Mali in midfield. They have Bissouma and Dieng as options on the bench.
 

Rinnegan240

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Tunisia still do not look like a football team. No fluency in attack so far.

Hannibal needs to get more stuck-in as African football is a decent primer for the physicality of the premier league.
 

the_cliff

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Tunisia still do not look like a football team. No fluency in attack so far.

Hannibal needs to get more stuck-in as African football is a decent primer for the physicality of the premier league.
Yeah he's getting manhandled by the Mali CM's right now.
 

Rinnegan240

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This is their first game isn't it?
I am not making this observation in isolation. I am also referring to their gameplay right from the recently concluded Arab cup where Tunisia finished as a runner-up to Algeria.

I was expecting some cohesion seeing as they still retained some players from that tourney for this one. Still seeing too much individualism here.

It was a disappointing match for Hannibal. Yanked off at halftime.

Men's football is still too physical for him and the system (or lack of) is not helping at all.
 
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Rasendori

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To my untrained eye, Mali have successfully managed to get Kone in positions where he's able to run at the defence. The thing is, he's not the dynamic force you could associate with Sékou Koïta who thrives in running the channels, driving and committing defenders with his youthful exuberance. Conversely, Talbi and Bronn have had difficulty trying to contain Kone when he's had his back to goal. Would like to see Mali capitalize on their superiority in possession with Haidara making a run between Bronn and Mathlouthi with the purpose of baiting Bronn who likes to commit himself enabling space for Djenepro to make a teasing cross to Kone.
 

Rinnegan240

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Tunisia looking more menacing going forward now they've conceded. Nice to see.

Yves Bissouma is on now. Time to see how he fares in another system.
 

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Thank you for the clarification :), it's great to hear there are no security concerns in general in that region of the country. How about the Anglophone situation, is that under wraps at the moment?

I've been to Douala and Limbe before, but a trip to Garoua from either Douala or Yaounde would have entailed a flight with Camair-Co (the first time I flew with them was the last time :lol:) or a 20 hour road trip from Douala/Yaounde, which I'm getting too old for...
I laughed out loud at the part in brackets , you're probably not the first and you probably won't be the last person to say that. And yes, a road trip to Garoua from Yaoundé/Douala isn't one I would recommend to any first timer in the country.

About the Anglophone crisis, Limbe and Buea are probably the safest places right now in the Anglophone regions and there has been heightened security in and around those towns precisely to ensure that the competition goes ahead without hitch. The government would like to avoid a situation like what happened to the Togolese team in Cabinda during the AFCON in Angola some years ago. "Under wraps" isn't an expression I would use to be fair and I'm not sure it would be anything resembling "under wraps" for the near future. It has become way too complex and there is a lot of insincerity (for the sake of balance I'd say) on both sides (I care about my safety :)) for a solution to be found soon. Maybe someone needs to quit his seat before we can have hope for a real lasting solution.

Everyone, sorry for the digression. Back to footie!
 

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Man just picks up the ball and demands a pen :lol:

Never a pen, but then I don't think Mali's was either.
 

Rasendori

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YESS great save. Mali don't need to exert themselves with the temptation of pushing for a two goal deficit. 1-0 is a great result for them. Just keep it tidy and simple for 15 minutes or so
 

CloneMC16

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That's one of the harshest red cards I've ever seen.

Edit: Wow. That's the first time I've ever seen a ref go against VAR. They asked him to look at the red card again and he kept the red.
 

the_cliff

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This ref has had a complete mare the last 4 mins.

Blew for full time at 85 mins.

And the harshest red card I've ever seen in my life.
 

Rinnegan240

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Referee must have had one too many Satzenbraus.

No way is that a straight red card

He even blew the final whistle at 85 mins.

He just blew the final whistle at 89 mins :lol:
 

Rex Banner

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Who is the ref? :lol:

Blows up early, twice! As well as one of the worst reds I've seen, which he could have overturned.
 

Wayne's World

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That referee is an absolute embarrassment

Blowing for full-time whistle in the 85th minute and then in the 89th....does he have a watch on him?
 

babablue

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WTF ref. Even if his watch malfunctioned, he should have enough understanding of the game flow that it wasn't full time yet.

And to still give a red after reviewing it
 

matsdf

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AFCON please never change :lol:

(Or please change. This kind of farce is not good for anyone)
 

CloneMC16

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The most shocking thing for me is he went against VAR. I've never seen any ref keep his decision after going to the monitor. For such a harsh red card, I can't believe he didn't change his decision. I only watched the last 20 minutes, but this ref had a complete mare.