Caf Champions League: Dynamos 3-0 LCS

Caf Champions League

Preliminary round

First leg result
Sunday, 17 February

Dynamos 3-0 LCS

Manchester United’s acid test

Real Madrid v Manchester United

Uefa Champions League, Last 16

First leg

Santiago Bernabeu

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Sir Alex Ferguson has called it “the acid test” for Manchester United and that sounds about right.

Tonight’s clash with Real Madrid is United’s biggest match of the season so far.

The Red Devils currently lie 12 points clear of rivals Manchester City in the English Premier League and look well on course for a 20th title.

With that being the case, the club’s obsession with the Champions League can be fully rekindled.

It has been so since that May night in 2011 when United were schooled by Barcelona on Europe’s grandest stage. Upon that 3-1 defeat in the Champions League final at Wembley, Sir Alex said his aim was to build a team to challenge, and beat, Barcelona.

The rise at home of noisy neighbours City has distracted Sir Alex somewhat, but with City out of the picture, full effort can be put into conquering Europe.

Ferguson has frequently stated United should have more than the three Champions League titles to their name. Success over Chelsea in a dramatic 2008 final gave the club a taste of wonderful possibilities after a relative barren spell. Two finals in three years followed, before last season’s group stage disaster.

Tonight’s match, then, represents the first test in Sir Alex recently under-publicised mission to knock Barcelona off their perch.

The tie against Madrid is also significant in that it represents a return to a venue which helped shape United’s last decade.

It’s now ten years since United travelled to the Bernabeu for the first leg of a Champions League quarterfinal tie in April 2003. United were thoroughly outplayed that evening and the 3-1 score-line didn’t do justice Madrid’s complete domination.

Eye on the prize
Wayne Rooney

It was a match that resulted in some soul-searching for Ferguson and would contribute in defining United’s approach over the next years

Back then, United were a team that attacked every night, home or away; the thought of a goalless United match was almost unbecoming to some. However, increasingly United became more compact and difficult to beat away from home. That certainly was a hallmark of their runs to the final in 2008 and 2009.

Other lessons came in the 2011 final defeat to Barcelona and Ferguson has been building a team since that can challenge Barca’s supremacy – with more speed, variation and a certain Mr. Robin van Persie.

Tonight’s game will be an interesting battle between two well-matched teams.

United’s record at the Bernabeu, however, is something they’ll have a tough time overcoming. Such nuances usually turn out to mean a lot.

United have never won at the Bernabeu and generally don’t have a good record against Spanish teams. Sir Alex’s side has endured past nightmares against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Deportivo La Coruna and last season were knocked out by Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League.

In their 43 all-time meetings with Spanish teams United’s record is 11 wins, 17 draws and 15 losses. Since the turn of the century it stands at 25 matches, 6 wins, 10 draws and 9 losses.

Real Madrid in turn have a pretty good record at home against English team – six wins and two draws in 12 games.

Dangerman
Cristiano Ronaldo

Madrid have the weapons to hurt United too. Their speed on attack is breathtaking and the trident of Angel Di Maria, Mesut Ozil and the irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo is the deadliest of its kind.

Madrid have had dramas several dramas this season and lie 16 points behind Barcelona in La Liga. But that makes them even more dangerous. The Champions League is Jose Mourinho’s last major focus and all that’s happened (or not) previously this season has little bearing on tonight’s game.

United certainly haven’t faced a team with the pace and quality of Madrid in the Premiership this season. The closest instance was the first half against Tottenham at Old Trafford in September when United were overrun physically and technically.

Madrid has the capability to do that.

Although the build-up has been spicy, with Madrid newspaper Marca calling Wayne Rooney a “football player and a hooligan all rolled into one”, expect a cagey affair with few risks taken by either team.

One thing is for sure, neither side will want this match to be lost before the second leg. Only if there’s an early goal may we see the type of attacking game both managers have talked up, but even then, that’s not a guarantee.

The real fireworks will come in the second leg at Old Trafford.

Real Madrid v Manchester United Trivia

- In their most recent meeting, in 2003, Madrid beat United 6-5 on aggregate in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Madrid won 3-1 at the Bernabeu before a 4-3 win for United in the second leg, a game remembered for Ronaldo’s hattrick

- Real Madrid’s home record against English teams reads 6 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses. United’s away record against Spanish opponents reads 2 wins, 8 draws and 10 losses

A tale of two coaches

Intriguing sub-plots always add spice to major sporting occasions and Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final will be no different.

While the match itself will be decided by a moment of brilliance, a mistake or even a refereeing error, Nigeria versus Burkina Faso is also in part about the two coaches; two men with contrasting vastly backgrounds but who’ve both overcome great adversity to reach the biggest stage in African football.

Frankly speaking, Stephen Keshi and Paul Put are chalk and cheese.

One is outspoken, the other more guarded. One is African, the other European.

However, in master-minding the success of two unheralded teams, they now share a commonality and both stand on the brink of immortality.

Yes!
Stephen Keshi (centre) celebrates Nigeria's quarterfinal victory over Ivory Coast

Stephen Keshi is football royalty in Nigeria.

One of Nigeria’s pioneering football exports when he joined Belgium’s Lokeren in 1986, Keshi went on to captain the Super Eagles’ last Nations Cup triumph, in 1994. Keshi gradually earned the moniker of “Big Boss” as much for his imposing play as for his aura off the field – fellow African players speak of his helping hand at a time when the continent’s exports to Europe were few and far between.

Fluent in English and French, it’s this stately quality that now serves Keshi well as a coach.

His journey to coaching’s pinnacle hasn’t been simple, though. Far from it.

It’s easy to forget that after obtaining his coaching badges in the late nineties there were few takers for a young Keshi on a continent that has not always respected its own upcoming African coaches.

His early prospects were not helped by the perceived catastrophe in his first job, as coach of Nigeria’s Under-20 team, of failing to qualify for the 2001 Fifa Youth World Cup. Practically rejected at home, it wasn’t until April 2004 that Keshi got his first job of note, as coach of Togo.

It wasn’t the most glamorous port. Togo were virtually unknown, ranked 154th in the world and had never progressed past the first round in the handful of Nations Cup they’d appeared in.

However, during a triumphant and emotive time, Keshi worked a minor miracle, leading Togo to the 2006 Nations Cup and 2006 World Cup, beating off Senegal, Mali and Zambia. But just as excitement was growing over Africa’s new coaching gem, a row with Togo’s star Emmanuel Adebayor and a first-round exit at the 2006 Nations Cup saw Keshi given the boot.  

His next job, as Mali coach, was ultimately similarly underwhelming. After being appointed in April 2008 on a two-year deal, Keshi was sacked in January 2010 after Mali’s early exit at the Nations Cup. Keshi’s Nations Cup record read: six games, one win, one draw and four losses.

The marriage with Super Eagles, therefore, came at a time when coach and team were probably at an all-time low. In November 2011 when Keshi took over Nigeria had just failed to qualify for the Nation Cup on the back of a disappointing 2010 World Cup campaign. The Super Eagles simply weren’t flying and, at home, were ridiculed as the ‘Super Chickens’.

14 months down the line Keshi is winning the struggle to revive the team despite lacking the full confidence of the Nigeria public and the usual ‘Nollywood’ drama that surrounds the national team.

After the tournament’s opening game Keshi was called by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to explain why his team gave away a lead against Burkina Faso. After Nigeria again lost a lead against Zambia, and with their hopes hanging by a thread, Keshi reportedly threatened to leave his job following a heated argument with NFF executive board members.

The Super Eagles have rallied behind their coach

His team has rallied though, beating Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Mali in successive games.

Now history beckons, if Keshi succeeds in lifting the Nations Cup title on Sunday he will become only the second man after Egypt’s Mahmoud Al Gohari to win the tournament as a player and coach.

Unlike Keshi, Paul Put didn’t have a distinguished playing career, but like Keshi the Belgian has endured crushing lows. In his homeland Put remains unwelcome.

In 2008, Put was found guilty of involvement in the Ye Zheyun scandal by the Belgian Football Association and banned for three years. The charges stemmed from Put’s time as Lierse coach. Twice in 2005 he fielded under-strength teams, seemingly as part of a match-fixing cartel allegedly organised by Chinese businessman Ye Zheyun.

Zheyun fled to China and claimed innocence. Put didn’t have such luck. He was the only person charged in the affair and was vilified in his homeland as a corrupt crook.

Outcast at home Put left for Africa and became the coach of Gambia in 2007. There he had noteworthy success with the tiny West African nation, lifting them from a ranking of 135th to as high as 65th. This success saw him head-hunted last March by a Burkina Faso side that, apart from the tournament they hosted in 1998, had never progressed beyond the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Put’s feats have been unprecedented. The Stallions won their first Nations Cup game in 15 years against Ethiopia, topped a group featuring two of the tournament’s traditional giants and now find themselves in the final against all odds.

This success, Put hopes, will grant him some sort of redemption and a chance to return home one day.

The Miracle Worker...
Paul Put at work

“It was a very hard time for me and my family and my friends. If they point at you and you are the only one, it is hard,” Put says. “I’ve been fighting, fighting, working, working, day and night, and at least I now I have satisfaction. I know it looks difficult but I want a new chance in my own country.”

Success with Burkina Faso on Sunday will help further. One last challenge waits though, outsmarting Keshi.

In the history of the Nations Cup 14 titles have been won by a local coach and 14 by foreign trainers. In the never-ending argument over local or foreign, this becomes another sub-plot in Sunday’s battle. “I am not against white coaches in Africa,” Keshi said recently. “What I am against is African teams employing mediocre coaches from Europe, ‘carpenter’ coaches, while we have quality African former players who can do the same thing,”

A lot, it seems, rides on Sunday’s game then. Tomorrow two proud West African nations will be pinning their hopes on two men who have taken the road less travelled to the top.

9 February 2013

Nigeria built for the kill

And then there were four. Just like that, Africa’s 16 finest have been whittled down to four – Nigeria, Mali, Ghana and Burkina Faso.

Nigeria go into their semi-final against Mali as slight favourites following their famous win over Ivory Coast, still, back home, they remain underestimated. Indeed, were it not for Sunday Mba’s moment of brilliance reports suggest coach Stephen Keshi would be out of a job.

The Boss
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi

It is a result of the Nigerian public’s fascination with the 1998 World Cup Dream-Team, perhaps Africa’s finest ever performers – in a purely footballing sense – on the world stage.

Although Nigeria didn’t progress past the last 16 in ‘98, it was the zenith of a spectacular era, encompassing a 1994 Nations Cup title, ‘94 World Cup second round, 1996 Olympic gold, and would culminate in a luck-less loss to Cameroon in the 2000 Nations Cup final.

It’s this era that has transfixed Nigeria, burdened its teams, and hung over the plethora of coaches that have followed, 11 to be exact since 2001.

Times have changed, though. Subsequent European scouting trends have, for the most part, seen to this.

20 years ago Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Finidi George were the silky, technical Nigerian gems scouted and polished. The focus since the turn of the millennium has shifted somewhat and today you find Nigeria’s most cerebral player, their number 10, John Obi Mikel, is a defensive midfielder at his club.

Keshi, in contrast to the majority of his countrymen and predecessors, has recognised this.

There’s no middle ground in his Super Eagles team. It’s all speed, power and athleticism.

Plodding midfielders such as Dickson Etuhu and Seyi Olofinjana have been replaced with the athleticism of Ogenyi Onanzi and Nosa Igiebor. Upfront the team is packed with the throwback Nigerian forward – big, fast and relentless.

It is a scary mix which, when it clicks, could define a new age for African football, certainly West Africa.

It's all about speed and power
Super Eagles striker Emmanuel Emenike

There has been an uneasy compromise in the region lately with coaches unable to mesh their European stars together with a national team identity. This compromise has stifled cohesion. An example is Ivory Coast which consists of players who do jobs at their clubs but lack the spontaneity to succeed on the international stage.

Keshi has done away with seeking any compromise, for there are no longer any Okochas or Sunday Olisehs. Keshi has instead shunned established stars for players that fit his system and vision. Dynamism is the order of the day.

So said Keshi after their quarterfinal victory: “Ivory Coast are the top team on the continent with lots of quality, so we tried to speed up and try to catch out players like Drogba and Yaya Toure.”

It has given this Nigeria team an identity, one akin to the successful Super Eagles teams Keshi featured in as a player which contained, amongst others, the uncontainable Rashidi Yekini and Keshi’s assistant coach today, Daniel Amokachi.

Keshi’s vision probably won’t come together yet – Nations Cup victory or not – but future assignments such as the 2014 World Cup look tasty if coach and squad are kept together.

At this tournament Nigeria’s development of their game-plan hasn’t been helped by the scandalous Mbombela pitch. Although they aren’t a passing team such a blitzkrieg game-plan needs precision. 20 passes are minimised into five incisive probes. The Mbombela field, where the Super Eagles played their first two matches, never allowed this.

The team’s decision making has also held them back; too often the final ball has been rushed. This can be put down to inexperience though; 30 year-old keeper Vincent Enyeama aside, the average of Nigeria’s starting team against Ivory Coast was 23.

Nigeria’s opponents Mali have proved themselves to be a genuine African force, two successive Afcon semi-finals is no mean feat.

Mali offer a contrast in styles to Nigeria. Their approach is more pragmatic, less prone to mistakes, slow in build-up and built for the counterattack. The Eagles have shown too over these past two Nations Cups that they can absorb enormous amounts of pressure and eventually turn the screw. This calm-headedness is embodied by their captain Seydou Keita, a majestic footballer who’s imperious with his feet and even more inspiring with his head.

It remains to be seen, though, if Mali can force the issue which is invariably what you need to do when you reach this stage of a tournament. Last year against the Ivory Coast the Eagles were thoroughly outplayed. Nigeria don’t quite have the tools to out-play Mali in the same way, but they have the weapons to destroy. This Keshi team is built for the kill.

Goaal!
Nigeria celebrate their winner against Ivory Coast

Ghana, newly-installed favourites by many, will have it tough in the other semi. Burkina Faso coach Paul Put has already said his side feel at “home” at Mbombela. And so they should. This will be the Stallions’ fifth game on the disastrous pitch, more than any other team.  

Burkina Faso are spoilers, ready to feed on errors.

Mbombela suits this mindset fits perfectly. The pitch is an equaliser something Burkina Faso, robbed of their superstar Alain Traore by injury, will be even more grateful for.

That’s not to say Ghana are the most technical team, they were outplayed for large periods by Cape Verde and if wasn’t for the heroics of their keeper Fatau Dauda, and the naivety of their opponents, they would be watching from home.

Even so, the Black Stars are team that wants to be on the front foot, creating chances through skilled players such as Kwadwo Asamoah, Christian Atsu and Solomon Asante.

It will be a struggle for Ghana.

Upsets have been par for the course at this Nations Cup, and for Burkina Faso, Mbombela is the perfect stage to produce yet another one.

4 February 2013

Kick Off: http://www.kickoff.com/news/32688/2013_afcon_nigeria_recapture_some_past_glories?display=&

The 2013 Afcon - Celebrate Africa

Television remote wars can break up homes – ugly looks passed across sitting rooms, awkward silences ending in one unlucky soul sleeping on the couch. That’s life sometimes.

Every now and then, though, this tragic in-house skirmish is worth it… The Africa Cup of Nations is here – it’s time to witness a proper celebration of Africa.

As you read this the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will have reached its business end where men have been separated from boys and the climax of this unique four-week festival is nigh.

So, what’s all the fuss about, you may ask.

Well, for one, this isn’t just a football tournament; instead the Nations Cup has become a symbol of pride for the continent, one inextricably tied with Africa’s road to emancipation. Steeped in tradition, the Nations Cup is about more than lifting a trophy, it’s a chance at immortality.

That this edition is in South Africa adds further romance, a renaissance moment of sorts, and a realisation how far the tournament and the continent have come since the first Afcon in 1957.

Humble beginnings
Africa Cup of Nations in 1957

When the Africa Cup of Nations was first mooted in June 1956 none of its founding members – Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa – would have envisaged its growth.

Against a backdrop of oppressive colonialism, football was both an escape and source of pride and the Nations Cup would be a free Africa’s first monument.

Still, challenges were such that the first Nations Cup was no more than a three-team championship between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia after South Africa was disqualified because of its apartheid policies. Its roots, though, had been formed. Africa’s nations would henceforth compete for the “African Unity Cup”.

Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah recognised the power of football as a means to achieve social change and convince Ghanaians, and Africans, of what they could achieve for themselves.

The result was a golden age of success for Ghana’s Black Stars but also a period in which Nkrumah passionately advocated Pan-Africanism. In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence from European colonial powers. The number nearly doubled over the next three years and in 1963, May 25, 32 independent African states formed the Organization of African Union, the precursor to today’s African Union.

That’s the essence of the Nations Cup, its beauty. It transcends the game.

More often than not teams are playing for their people.

In 1996, South Africa’s victory united a country. At last year’s edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Libya’s team played for unity amidst political in-fighting at home while Zambia dedicated their tournament victory to their Chipolopolo predecessors killed in a plane crash in 1993.

Today, eight of the 16 nations competing at this year’s tournament are listed as having ongoing military conflict back home. When Mali’s Seydou Keita scored the winner in his side’s opening match against Niger he revealed a simple message: “Peace for Mali”.

This is a critical juncture in the history of the tournament. In some ways the Nations Cup has become unsure of its place. This is the first Afcon since 1965 held in an odd-year in an attempt to avoid a clash with the World Cup. Critics have lamented how often the championship is played, others its quality.

So, Afcon 2013 is significant.

It’s significant to a South African nation that’s recently suffered the blight of xenophobia and fallen away from its embrace of African football competition that once made it so formidable. It’s significant because it’s an opportunity to eliminate a worrying lethargy in the continent’s administrators that has, in recent years, deprived Africa the spectacle the Nations Cup should be.

It’s significant too for Lesotho; a wake-up call hopefully, because once again our country is being left out of the festivities, not because of a lack of talent, but a lack of fortitude.

The Competition

The Africa Cup of Nations has grown into a championship of 16 teams, divided into four groups of four each. The top two from each group progress to the quarterfinals with the knockouts continuing until a winner emerges in the final at Soccer City, Johannesburg on February 10.

Favourites

Favourites again...
Didier Drogba leads the Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast

Thus far it has been difficult to pick a team to go all the way such is the wide-open nature of the tournament and African football in general in recent times. Nevertheless, Ivory Coast should be considered heavy favourites for the title. It’s a tag the Elephants hold for a fifth successive tournament and one they haven’t revelled in. It is one of the great mysteries how this golden generation has failed to win any silverware since its rise to prominence in 2006.

Ivory Coast have lost two finals (2006, 2012) and reached two semi-finals in that time, repeatedly falling short at the moment of truth.

Still, Ivory Coast are a formidable team. They are Africa’s top-ranked team and have not lost a match in regular playing time since a friendly in Poland in late 2010. There’s also a realisation this could be the last chance for many of the squad, notably captain Didier Drogba, to capture this Holy Grail.

Ghana

Ghana were the darlings of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when they were nicknamed BaGhana-BaGhana, a play on Bafana Bafana after the hosts bombed early. They showed then they will enjoy South African conditions more than most.

Without star players Andre Ayew, Sulley Muntari, Michael Essien and John Mensah it may be easy to overlook Ghana’s threat, but that’s where the danger lies. Physically strong, tactically astute and technically gifted, the Black Stars are perhaps the perfect football hybrid.

Nigeria

Nigeria would seem a strange choice to be amongst the favourites, but their track record speaks for the fact they will be difficult to be beat. No other team at this tournament has reached the semi-finals of the Nations Cup more than the Super Eagles. Indeed Nigeria’s record of 13 last-four appearances is only bettered by record champions Egypt, with 14.

This Nigeria side is physical, a seemingly deliberate throwback by coach Stephen Keshi to the Super Eagles sides he played in, with players like Rashidi Yekini, in the mid-nineties. That was a period of success which included a 1994 Nations Cup win and a 1996 Olympic gold medal. Once again raw power, speed and breath-taking athleticism are Nigeria’s game. And, once again, it will be difficult to stop.

Dark horses

Togo

With Emmanuel Adebayor in tow, anything is possible for the Sparrows.  The lanky striker has a talismanic ability rarely found. As a footballer he has it all. His only problem is desire. Still, Adebayor’s past feats are remarkable. He inspired an unknown Togo to the 2006 World Cup, scoring 11 goals in the qualifiers, more than any other player in Africa. If he’s motivated Adebayor can carry this team as far as he wishes.

Mali, Cape Verde and Zambia, as defending champions, will be thereabouts as well. Each has unique intangibles; Mali an unyielding spirit, Cape Verde disciplined flair and Zambia the confidence of champions.

The Big Prize...
Zambia captain Chris Katongo kisses the
Nations Cup trophy

Regardless who emerges victorious, this is Africa’s time in the limelight. Since its inception the Nations Cup has been about extending the hand of friendship to neighbours cut off from one another by borders they had no say in creating. It’s always been about promoting a common African unity and maintaining a promise to keep ploughing forwards as a people.

So next time those remote wars spring up, stand for your ground. There’s always a story at the Afcon, and above all – it’s time to celebrate Africa.

28 January 2013