The African cup of Nations otherwise famously called the AFCON has started on Saturday the 13th of January. This 34th edition of this very intense and extremely competitive battle for the best football nation in Africa for a period of two years which is being hosted by Corte D’Ivory was supposed to hold last year 2023, however it was postponed by CAF to 13 January – 11 February 2024 on 3 July 2022 due to the adverse summer weather concerns in Ivory Coast, whilst retaining the edition’s original name for sponsorship purposes.
This years competition after the opening ceremony commenced with the host nation facing one of its neighbors from Guinea Bissau which they pipped 2 -0, the shock waves started rippling through the competion. What the world and the football community had expected did not happen. In fact it was quite the opposite that occured as supposed great football nations of the continent bowed to supposed underdogs in the competion. Egypt serial champion in the competion had to extricate themselves from the hands or should one say the boots of Mozambique which forecasted had predicted would go home with basket full of goals in that encounter. It turned out that it was in the last minutes of the extra time of the nerve wracking match for the Egyptians that the powerful Egypt got themselves a penalty kick which their star player Mo Salah converted into a goal, to end the match at One all.
The biggest of the falls was Ghanas Black Stars which faced the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde. A country one can count the number of times they have qualified for this continental event on the fingers of one hand. While on the flip of the coin the Black Star’s last four Afcon wins was in 1982 but those triumphs, allied with runs to the semi-finals in 2012, 2013 and 2017 plus the final in 2015, mean they are considered one of the competition’s heavyweights. One can remeber the days of Abedi Pele in which Ghana dorminated this competition.
The Black Stars however, unfortunately had been on a poor run of form and were only ranked 12 places above Cape Verde, but the manner of their defeat has led to fears they will repeat their group-stage exit in 2021, when they claimed a solitary point.
The Blue Sharks deservedly took the lead as part of a spell of early dominance, then recovered from conceding a second-half equaliser to rally late on and win 2-1 through Garry Rodrigues’ 92nd-minute strike.
Then there was Nigeria, another multple champion of the AFCON again unceded Equatorial Guinea. The only word the describe the performance of a team parading stars like Victor Osimeh, Africas current best footballer and Chukwuezi an European goal scoring sensation and others of this star studded team is lack luster. That the Super Eagles of Nigeria managed to get a one all draw from Equatorial Guinea.
This state of affairs leaves too many raised eyebrows and puzzled expressions on the faces of many an interested party in this competition. Nigeria faces the host nation which is presently on fire and marked as the likely champions on Thursday. Ghana, if the lose their next match will be on their way home. Egypty has to upped their ante if the desire to make any impression whatsoever in this competition.
Is this therefore the fall of the Mighty or the rise of the Lilliputans?
