Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Meanwhile, some real matches...

... are being played in Egypt, where the African Cup of Nations is in full swing.

It's an odd dynamic in Africa at the moment, since the traditional African powers--Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa--flopped mightily in World Cup qualifying. Some read this as a changing of the guard in African soccer, but at least based on the results of the cup so far, this seems more like a momentary aberration. World Cup bound Angola and Togo were dropped pretty easily by Cameroon and Congo respectively. Highly touted but currently injury plagued Ghana lost a tense 1-0 game to Nigeria. Only Cote d'Ivoire are prospering, riding the back of one goal victories over Libya and Morocco to reach the quarter-finals already.

South Africa, who are, you'll recall, 2010 World Cup hosts were apparently dreadful in their 2-0 loss to Guinea

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