The qualified teams have been determined, some big names have missed out, Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt, South Africa, Togo, Algeria, but here are the teams that qualified and their seeding for the groups (yet to be drawn). 1st seeded Gabon (co-hosts) Equatorial Guinea (co-hosts) Ivory Coast Ghana 2nd seeded Angola Tunisia Zambia Guinea 3rd seeded Mali Senegal Morocco Burkina Faso 4th seeded Sudan Libya Botswana Niger Amongst those countries are some fantastically talented players, the Toure brothers, Eboue, Tiote, Gervinho, Kalou, Drogba (all playing on the same team!), Mensah, Muntari, Gyan, Maiga, Keita, M'Bengue, Ba, Taarabt, Chamakh, along with countless other less-famous talents. Naturally, Toon eyes will be on Ivory Coast and Senegal (who could be drawn together) as Tiote and Ba both chase silverwear from different positions. Ivory Coast as favourites, Senegal as outsiders but those of us who don't already support an African side (most of us) will surely be rooting for both of them. For a long time the ACoN has been seen by some as a waste of time and an unwelcome distraction but in recent years we have seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of African football, the continent now surely firmly ranked third best behind Europe and South America. WC1994 Nigeria top their group on goal difference and are narrowly beaten by would-be finalists Italy. WC1998 Nigeria win their group, recording a win against Spain in the process, later dumped out of the competition by Denmark. Morocco missed out on the round of 16 by 1 point. WC2002 Senegal beat (an admittedly dire) France in the group stages then Sweden in the last 16 before falling in a narrow defeat to Turkey. South Africa almost made it past the group stage, which included a dramatic 2-3 loss to Spain. Cameroon were pipped to qualification by Ireland. WC2006 had Ghana beating USA and the Czech Republic in the group stages before bowing out to an impressive Brazil. WC2010 saw Ivory Coast almost qualify out of the 'group of death' drawing with a much fancied Portugal in the process. Algeria recorded an impressive draw with England. South Africa drew with Mexico and famously beat France. Ghana reached the QF stage after beating USA (again) but controversially knocked out by a dishonest Uraguay. Clear improvement! I would say on the international scale African countries are no longer being taken for granted as 'making up the numbers' at the World Cup and were they in any other group, Ivory Coast would have joined Ghana in the last 16 and possibly went further. I think African football has improved massively over the last 20 years. What I'm saying is, I think a lot of fans are underestimating the importance of this competition and see it more as an annoyance (yes it's once every two years instead of four but still...). There are some top, top quality teams in this competition and we should really be backing our boys out there, rather than just crossing our fingers and hoping they don't get hurt. When Tiote and Ba return (hopefully together after a brilliant final) we should give them a huge cheer and keep the sighs of relief to ourselves. With winning comes confidence and we need as much as that as possible. Imagine having the Champion of Africa as our captain, I'd be so proud! So who else is totally pumped up for the African Cup of Nations?
Well, if you look at it in a football point of view we have no chance, we've been in a war and players haven't played any football for 8 months and there barley fit, but hey anything can happen in football, we've just won 1 game and drew 1 and got into the African Cup, absolute miracle!
Nah, that's one of the main reasons I checked up the qualifiers. Shola will have to wait. I think great inspiration can be taken from Iraq winning the 2007 Asian Cup. Sometimes pure guts and passion along with a tight group of players can produce amazing things. So Libya getting out of their group would be fantastic and hopefully give the country something to come together over, if only for a short while.
