Good to see players from both sides embracing and talking during warm-ups. However, the look of disappointment very apparent as you look at the players from both sides who expected to be meeting each other in the Finals.
GOAL!!! Cote d'Ivoire 24' - Sanogo beats Mensah to put the ball past Kingson on a well timed thru-ball from Siaka Tiéné .
Goal CIV! Ghana 1-2 CIV. It's good to see Les Elephants with a keeper who can actually save shots. They are dominating so far.
GOAL!!! Cote d'Ivoire 32' - Sanogo puts the ball in the net off a deflection. Ghana's defence is realing after Kingson makes back to back brilliant saves to deny both Kalou and Drogba. However the CIV attack beginning to prove problems for Ghana. CIV 2-1 Ghana .
38' - Drogba with superb touch to get around Mensah. Drogba makes an excellent cross to a wide open Keita who clanks it off the crossbar to spoil a very easy chance for a 3rd CIV goal. .
if you are in Toronto as your profile says, its on TV5 a French Channel, channel 103 or 105, it's half-time now, score 2-1 for Ivory Coast
Halftime and CIV 2-1 Ghana. Very impressive CIV attack thus far. Ghana really needs to reorganize itself in the 2nd half if they plan on keeping this match close. CIV could easily have 4 goals already if not for the brilliant saves from Ghana's Kingson.
GOAL!!! Ghana 70' - Quincy Owusu makes a beautiful run down the center of the park to blow by 3 defenders and calmly place the ball past the keeper. .
GOAL!!! Ghana 80' - Jr. Agogo with the go ahead goal from a slick pass by Essien. Excellent build up leading to the goal and Ghana has turned things around and now looks in command of this match. . Ghana 3-2 CIV
Ghana scores once again! 4-2. CIV's defence is worse than mediocre. As I said before, Egypt shouldn't dismiss Cameroon, even if they won 4-2 in the group stage.
GOAL!!! Ghana again! - Draman with an excellent shot from 30 yds out that skips past the unlucky CIV keeper. The Ghanaians are now celebrating and doing the snake dance. Ghana 4-2 CIV. WOW!! what a match! .
I've counted three times already that the Côte d'Ivoire's defence has been left flat-footed thinking it was offside when it wasn't. The third Ghana goal was just like that: the defenders just stood there, watching. A world-quality team cannot have such defence. What a shame.
It's over. Cameroon-Egypt tomorrow, and my bet is on Egypt winning it thanks to their keeper, El-Hadary, one of the best in the world IMO.
What a disappointing conclusion for CIV, who with all their talent, came into the tournament as the unquestioned favourite. To concede 4 goals in one match can be considered a fluke, but to do it in back-to-back games is definitely a sign of a lack of concentration during critical moments. However with all their weapons, they'll still be one of Africa's favourites for years to come. For Ghana, they managed to turn around what seemed to be an anemic attack in the early stages of the tournament into one of their best outcomes thus far. Essien, once again proved himself to be one of the elite CM's in the world. It would be amazing to see how he would fair for the Black Stars if he actually had a quality striker(s) playing up top for Ghana.
Ghana cared (home crowd and all). Ivory Coast was there for the Gold. Third of fourth place didn't really matter to them,
There's been a competitive rivalry between these two border nations for years going way back to the epic club fixtures between Asec Mimosas and Asante Kotoko. The level of rivalry isn't on par with Nigeria vs. Ghana but it's close. Couple that with the fact they're both 2 of Africa's current top footballing nations with big continental expectations. Those who think the match meant nothing to both sides have zero knowledge of the dynamics involved.