A thrilling
African Cup Of Nations 2002 will kick off January 19th, the second in a
row to feature all the big names of African football.
Ghana-Nigeria 2000
had already seen the return of the Nigerian Super Eagles after a four years
absence caused by boycott and ban and their first meeting with the South
Africans who had themselves returned from isolation just four years before.
But 2002 will even
see more thrill added by the fact that five teams will be under heavy pressure
to prove themselves ahead of the World Cup.
The sometimes hysterical
reflection of results among fans and media might move some well prepared
World Cup plans into a stormy sea on a continent where too many matches
ended in riots and casualties 2001 and coaches are fired easily.
Let's take a look:
Five teams qualified
for the World Cup, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tunisia, Senegal, and South Africa,
they all expect a semi-final place at Mali.
Unfortunately - there
are only four semifinal places.
Plus Egypt and Morocco.
Two disappointed favorites of the World Cup qualifyiing campaign who now
will entirely focus on this event.
- Already 7 possible teams
for four semifinal places.
Plus Côte d'Ivoire,
a team between magic weeks and less inspired tournaments - if they are
in form we will have:
- candidate #8 for the semis
Because of the draw
it is even impossible that all those 8 make the quarter-finals. At least
one of them, from Group D, will have to go home even after the first round.
Easy to predict that
somebody, maybe including one of the World Cup teams might be in troubles
soon and a promising perspective could become spoiled as it happened to
Morocco two years ago.
Doubts will rise,
the coach will come into question. Months before the World Cup probably
one of the worst things to happen.
But there are more teams
at Mali 2002 luring for a surprise hit:
What's with Ghana,
should one really write them off?
They seem under much less
pressure than usual, and still full of talent.
And how strong is Liberia
eventually? Yet George Weah's group are not fancied much here. But didn't
they almost qualifiy for the World Cup? And they seem to be in a relatively
smooth group.
As are hosts Mali. They want
to repeat the success of Burkina Faso who made the semi-finals 1998 from
a similar situation. Not much impact in the recent past but on youth level
they are already among the world best.
And the DR Congo, four years
ago they finsihed third. Which of their Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hide faces will
they show this time?
In case you have forgot counting:
we have already mentioned 12 teams with potential to make an impact.
Still there are Algeria,
Togo, Burkina Faso, and Zambia, all no pushovers, arriving to spoil somebody's
day but considering the strength of this years tournament, probably without
chance to win anything. Though one never knows...
The only thing absent
is a total outsider like Gabon, Sierra Leone or Namibia had been at recent
tournaments. Lesotho and Madagascar almost made it but did not have the
stamina after a good beginning in the qualifiers.
Now the 2002 edition
seems to see the strongest field ever considering this depth of 16 teams. |
