My predictions: GROUP A South Africa 5-0 Tanzania Nigeria 3-0 Mali South Africa 1-2 Nigeria Mali 3-1 Tanzania South Africa 3-1 Mali Nigeria 6-0 Tanzania GROUP B Cameroon 1-0 Equatorial Guinea Ghana 3-1 Algeria Ghana 3-2 Cameroon Equatorial Guinea 1-0 Algeria Cameroon 2-0 Algeria Ghana 2-1 Equatorial Guinea SEMI-FINALS Nigeria 3-1 Cameroon South Africa 1-1 Ghana AET, South Africa on penalties 3RD PLACE MATCH Ghana 2-1 Cameroon FINAL South Africa 0-0 Nigeria AET, Nigeria on penalties
Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria to the WWC I think. Nigeria is a given, but i'd like to see some new blood, so hopefully Guinea or South Africa make it.
While Equatorial Guinea undoubtedly improved tremendously in a short space of time to win the last African Championship, a lot of their success had to do with the fact they were playing on home territory. It'll be interesting to see how they do away from their own fans.... It would be great to see another new nation qualify from Africa.
If there were to be a new qualifier from Africa, Cameroon would be the likely candidate. They have consistently performed well at the African Championships, making the semifinals the last four times. Equatorial Guinea are still very new to the top level of African competition, and have never proven themselves away from home. And South Africa tend not to perform well under the pressure of high expectations: they collapsed quite spectacularly the last time they hosted.
It's mainly to do with Tanzania being more defensive I think. The match report stated that they were getting 6 or 7 players behind the ball, whereas when they played a friendly match recently (South Africa won 6-0), Tanzania tried to play more open.
Final result Nigeria 5:0 Mali Ayila had the fifth, but I'm not sure who scored the fourth. Nigeria have often been slow starters at the championship, so it has to sound alarms across the competition for them to be in such good form already.
Ominous indeed. Just to sound further alarm bells, South Africa struggled to draw 2-2 with Mali in a pre-tournament friendly. South Africa can at least be thankful that they won't need to face them in the semi-finals. If they can just raise their game enough to beat Ghana or Cameroon (and Mali obviously), they will be at the World Cup next year.
Didn't know Nkwocha was still playing, and playing well by the sound of it. She was a standout for Nigeria at the last World Cup.
following colinudoh on twitter now Ghana have fought back to take a 2-1 lead in the second half. eta: It's now a final. Ghana 2:1 Algeria FT
If anything, I'm even more alarmed for South Africa's prospects knowing that Tanzania was only sending three players into the attack. If South Africa still conceded a goal in those circumstances, it won't surprise me to see Nigeria net six or seven against them.
Didn't SA protest to FIFA about getting slaughtered by Nigeria's youth teams in the past year? Seems when age isn't a factor it levels out.
CAN féminine 2010 : la guinée a-t-elle triché Le Cameroun a déposé hier soir une requête auprès de la CAF (Confédération Africaine de football). Elle concerne la joueuse Simpore Salimata (Guinée équatoriale) qui, en mars dernier avait pris part aux éliminatoires de la coupe d’Afrique des nations féminine avec l’équipe nationale de Côte d’Ivoire. Elle portait alors le dossard numéro onze. http://www.camfoot.com/CAN-feminine-2010-la-guinee-a-t.html