If you’re a football fan and you’re feeling a bit disillusioned by what we’ve been subjected to over the last week, you’re not alone. As we update Day 6 of AFCON 2015, it must be said that I am very disappointed, and have been very vocal as I’ve sat through hours of uneventful football. I thought I was being overly critical, but quickly realised, after hearing some top African football greats, now serving as TV commentators and pundits, that they are seeing it as I am. Where are the goals? Where is the Africa footballing flair that we all love to watch? There is still some time to go and maybe now that teams have settled in, things will improve. Behind the scenes, things are still very challenging, with Ghana coach, Avram Grant being very vocal on poor service, such as their team bus that ‘acts more like a ship than a bus’ and it being poorer than what other teams get to use. Also press conferences that draw coaches away from their teams and times are then changed with little notice. Let’s move things back to the field, and check in with yesterday’s matches out of Group B.
The first game of the day, was between now bottom of the log, Zambia and Tunisia at Nuevo Estadio de Ebebiyin. Tunisian captain Yassine Chikhaoui headed into the net, late in the game, to snatch victory away from the Zambians to see the men from the far north head up group B with a 3 point lead. Chikhaoui nodded past a diving Kennedy Mweena and really rained on the Southern African’s parade because one got the feeling that the Zambians could pull it off as the likeliest winners for most of the match after Emmanuel Mayuka’s 59 minute goal. 11 minutes later, the Tunisians’ equalised as Ahmed Akaichi scored and took his tournament goal tally to two. Here are your video highlights.
Cape Verde and the Democratic Republic of Congo brought us the 2nd game of the day and it was a very uneventful, goalless affair, after the 90-odd minutes. Both teams were strong in defense and seemed to put all effort into that aspect, but with really poor service up front, most attacks were thwarted or just fizzled out and then it all started over and the pattern continued. The DRC really should have done a lot better than they did and most TV panel experts seemed to be in agreement. The sharing of the spoils means that Tunisia are sitting pretty at the top of the group with 4 points, Cape Verde and the DRC are tied in 2nd place on two points and the men from Zambia are at the bottom with 1 point. You can catch up with the visual highlights here.
Tonight’s games, from Group C, will take place at the Estadio de Mongomo. The first match will be between log leaders Algeria and Ghana, my pick for the most entertaining game of the tournament to this point. The second match will be between bottom of the table South Africa and third placed Senegal. My money is firmly on the men from South Africa, based purely on pre-tournament form. Enjoy the football and don’t forget to leave us your predictions for the day’s games in the space below.