Friday, February 1, 2008

African Cup Of Nations Goes From Good To Great

So we're in the middle of the African Cup Of Nations (think World Cup but only for the 51 nations of the continent of Africa) which means great football and other outstanding things like witch doctors and juju (take your pick).

It's a shame that this tournament isn't on TV because the quality of play is really damn good these days.

Anyhow, the group rounds are over and the field has been whittled from 16 teams to 8 for the knockout stage. And there are some absolutely awesome matchups this weekend.

ACN Quarterfinals:

Sunday, Feb 3

Ghana-Nigeria (could be epic)
Ivory Coast-Guinea

Monday Feb 4

Egypt-Angola
Tunisia-Cameroon

I don't have time to get into all of these, but Bobbeh did a great preview/analysis today.

At the start of the tournament I really wanted to pick hosts Ghana, who as you remember I was quite high on at World Cup 2006, but I couldn't pull the trigger as they are without their inspirational talisman and captain Steven Appiah. So like many people, I liked Ivory Coast to win it all, and I thought they would beat hosts Ghana in the final, with Cameroon and Nigeria being defeated semifinalists. Not much of a limb there, but it's still on the cards so I'll stick with that.

The highlights and goals thusfar have been great each night on Fox Sports World Report, and they're averaging over 3 goals a match, so again it sucks that these aren't on TV. You can, however, watch games online on a PPV basis at AllSoccerAfrica. I'll probably end up buying the semifinal and final later next week.

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