| A Rain of Goals |
 By ARUKAINO UMUKORO
So far, football has been at its unpredictable best in the ongoing African Cup of Nations, tagged Angola 2010. In the opening match, the Malian Eagles literally snatched an unlikely draw from the jaws of defeat, when they overturned a four-goal deficit against Angola`s Palancas Negras in 16 minutes of normal time. Football minnows, Malawi, left World Cup-bound Algeria biting the dust after recording an emphatic 3 — 0 victory against the Desert Warriors, while Ivory Coast barely managed a 0 — 0 draw with Burkina Faso.
“It`s like the Ivoriens really don`t know how to handle pressure,” said sports analyst Godwin Spiff-Sagbamah of Ivory Coast performance so far. “In 2008 (Nations` Cup), after beating Nigeria, everybody thought it was El dorado until Egypt dismissed them with a wave of the hand. And they were crying like little children whose ice cream was taken from them,” he said.
For the Super Eagles of Nigeria, it was more than just the figurative “ice cream” that was taken away from them. After 47 years of waiting, the defending champions, the Pharaohs of Egypt finally got their pound of flesh and rubbished Daniel Amokachie`s claim that they were a team in “recession”. They thrashed the Eagles 3 —1 in their first group match. Since the 1963 Nations` Cup, where Egypt defeated the Eagles 6—3, both teams had met a further six times, with Nigeria winning four and the other two ending in a draw. A less than credible Nations` Cup performance from the Eagles` team portends an ominous sign for Coach Shaibu Amodu.
It has also been a tale of the ugly and the bloody. Two days to the start of the tournament, the Togolese national team`s bus was ambushed by separatist rebels from a faction of the Front for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda, FLEC, on their way to the oil =rich Cabinda, venue of their group matches. The unexpected gun attack left two people dead and some players injured. On the orders of their Prime Minster, Togo eventually pulled out of the tournament and was disqualified by the Confederation of African Football, CAF, For Spiff=Sagbamah, such unfortunate incident could have been prevented if adequate security measures were taken by the Angolan government and CAF. “In the events leading to the Nations` Cup, we heard information that Cabinda indeed was not safe, that it was a haven for rebels either on the Congo or Angola side. As a matter of fact, some dissidents in Cabinda had declared it a republic, totally independent from Angola. So, that tells you the existing problem there,” he noted. Angola is still recovering from almost three decades of civil war since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975. “In these tragic circumstances one can understand if the team says from a mental or psychological point of view that it is difficult to continue. My sympathy would be with the team. One hopes that these matters will be understood in that context,” said Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of South Africa`s World Cup organising committee. He reiterated South Africa readiness to host a hitch-free World Cup in June after comparison was made between Angola and South Africa. “We have looked at every area of security - route security, hotels, training venues, base camps, fan parks and stadium security and that is part of a comprehensive security plan which has been tested over all of those events,” he noted. In the end, Ivory Cost, Burkina Faso and Ghana slugged it out in Group B.
The unfortunate incident aside, Angola 2010 has so far lived up to its billing with a flurry of goals in all the matches so far. Ghana 2008 produced the highest number of goals in a single Nations` Cup with record 99 goals scored. So far in this edition, it has been a goal` galore. And with more goals expected to come in thick and fast in the remaining fixtures, maybe Angola 2010 could surpass that record. Not only that, Spiff-Sagbamah believes there are more upsets to come. “The minnows have nothing to lose and everything to gain. They don`t have anything to prove like the more fancied teams. So they are going to enjoy themselves, play their game and take you to the wire. Look at what Malawi did to Algeria.”
Spiff-Sagbamah; Assesses the competition
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