Comments on: Africa Cup of Nations open thread

By: Igor Belanov

Igor Belanov — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:46:13 +0000

@28

England do play in an uninspiring fashion at major tournaments, but you do seem to be giving the usual cliched ‘doom and gloom’ analysis favoured by the English media.

In their last 5 tournaments England have played 22 matches and lost 3 in 90 (or 120) minutes. Not too bad a record in fact.

By: Eli Rabett

Eli Rabett — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:49:03 +0000

They are also available as replays on http://espn.go.com

By: Tom Hurka

Tom Hurka — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:26:09 +0000

What’s the point of an international football tournament if it doesn’t feature England finding yet another way to lose?

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:02:28 +0000

For the Americans in the audience, ESPN3 is showing every game live.

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:52:36 +0000

Nice goal for Tunisia there to go 1-0 up in injury time.

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:44:57 +0000

@ Brandon Kendhammer, surely that’s a problem for all the African nations. The whole structure of football is a mess. Any extra money put into the European game will go to players, owners of clubs can only really make any money when they sell (if they are lucky), and more and more owners of Premier League teams are in it for their own vanity and have no links to the actual club (this includes Sunderland). This money attracts players from all over the world but weakens those players’ domestic leagues and the development of national teams. There really needs to be some limit on wages, in Europe at least, combined with investment in developing* countries.

*That’s ‘developing’ in a footballing sense.

By: salazar

salazar — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:50:25 +0000

No predictions, but unimpressive play so far.

By: QS

QS — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:36:08 +0000

C’mon Morocco, if you’re going to take El Hamdaoui away from us, at least give him some pitch time so he can find his touch!

(Fiorentina fan)

By: Dick Gregory

Dick Gregory — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:48:37 +0000

Gervinho’s just done the business. He’s been running around a lot. Adebayor had the ball taken from him five yards out after five minutes.
The Racing Post thinks Algeria are on the up and Tunisia are fading, so the 9/5 on Algeria is good.

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:41:27 +0000

80 mins … and another 1-1 draw in prospect, so much for the all-conquering Ivory Coast!

By: Metatone

Metatone — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:38:30 +0000

I pine for the days when BBC3 showed every game it could. I even grew fond of Mark Bright’s link man on the sofa persona.

By: Brandon Kendhammer

Brandon Kendhammer — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:08:06 +0000

Nigeria struggles internationally at least in part because, while it has it’s share of UEFA-level players, it depends heavily on talent from the national league, where the quality of the pitches, coaching, and tactics do few favors for player development.

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:32:19 +0000

This is the one thread that I expected J Otto Pohl to be all over, and he’s nowhere to be seen. Is he, perhaps, unwell? Or have the Stalinists got him?

By: minnesotaj

minnesotaj — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:23:56 +0000

Côte d’Ivoire will play some attractive football, but like Gervinho & his present club Arsenal, they will make some spectacular mis-plays and fall out. Drogba, for his part, will make some also spectacular runs, in an effort to back out of China, only to make a back-handed case for why Torres isn’t working as a bar-back somewheres.

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:59:08 +0000

The Lions of Cameroon may be indomitable, but they are not in the finals ….