The "colourful cup" kicks off tomorrow with co-hosts Equatorial Guinea v Libya and then Senegal v Zambia. I always enjoy this competition for several reasons - the lack of any players who know how to defend, the youngsters who make their name, the insane supporters, the cool African drumming during the games, etc. and I will be trying to watch as much of it as I can. So, will you be watching? If so, which team(s) will you be backing and why? And do you have any hunches on players who might earn themselves a big-money move? I'm tipping Burkina Faso's 17 year-old goalkeeper Germain Sanou and Morocco's Younes Belhanda. For those of you who like to complain about threads which have nothing to do with Southampton - John Paintsil is in the Ghana team and I remember hearing a rumour that we were looking to sign him once. So er, yeah, there's your precious connection. We can also use this as an opportunity to scout players for Nige.
Ivory Coast have alot of class players. I liked watching Ghana in the world cup, so will probs cheer on them. Do you know what channel has the matches?.
No idea, I'll probably be streaming them. I think Ghana look the most likely as well, but I'll also tip Morocco and Mali as dark horses. Who knows what the hosts (Equatorial Guinea and Gabon) might have to offer as well.
Just seen the advert for it , ITV4 has it . Morocco seem to play well until the knock out stages then implode.
Their squad has a lot of class this year. Even Taarabt won't be guaranteed a starting place. Look out in particular for Belhanda, Kharja, Amrabat and Boussoufa in midfield. Chamakh up front will obviously be dangerous as well.
The leading stars are most likely to sign for top PL clubs and we're unlikely to get a work permit for qanyone else, so from a scouting perspective it's probably a bit of a lost cause. Is any of it on a channel that I don't have to pay for? If so, I'm interested. I do enjoy watching games involving players I don't know.
Ghana have got to be seen as favourites, but Senegal's strike force will frighten any team they come up against. Apparently Cissé, Ba and Sow have scored 90 goals between them over the last year.
Probably...against the defenders of Tunisia, Gabon and Niger... Hard to imagine I know, but he actually scores for the national team. I'm really surprised to see that Mounir El-Hamdaoui isn't in the squad though.
True, Amrabat from PSV is class, Boussoufa should never have gone to Anzhi. I'll hopefully see how good Doumbia (Ivory Coast) is ment to be too. Senegal look a strong team aswell.
This is a good blog about it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/piersedwards/2012/01/2012_nations_cup.html It should be particularly interesting that Egypt, Cameroon and Nigeria have all failed to qualify. Niger, Botswana and Equatorial-Guinea are all first-timers, so I'll be supporting those three.
Ivory coast have got to be faviourites, with the likes of drogba the toure brothers, tiote, gervinho, kalou... They should really be challenging more the World cup as well really.
I think Ghana will be the ones to watch but Senegal are also decent but you never know what internal wranglings will occur; Nigeria and Ivory Coast always seem to implode. I fancy Gabon and Burkina Faso to give a good showing, yet you can never write off the north African teams who are technically good and usually defensively more adept.I used to play against some Algerians and Jordanians and they were always strong and skillful. I went to South Africa (amazing place) before the World Cup and everyone loves football there, it is just a pity so many of them support Man U (in West Africa it is Chelsea for obvious reasons).
I'll second that, SA is an amazing country for all kinds of reasons. I wonder if the Man Utd connection is related to Quinton Fortune?
