Image : http://www.flickr.com
The biennial Africa soccer cup of nations comes alive on 10 Jan. 2010 with great promises. It would be a showcase of most of the soccer talents from the African continent, ranging from those plying their trades in the English premiership, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian serie A, Brazilian league, Asian leagues, to those in the African leagues.
The traditional national teams like Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'ivoire, Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali and Zambia would all be there to entertain the teeming followers of the African soccer fiesta. Countries favoured to lift the trophy at the end of the tournament include Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'ivoire, Cameroon, Algeria, the defending champions Egypt and the host nation Angola which is an emerging soccer giant in the African continent.
The likes of Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel, Salomon Kalou, Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Eboue, Peter Osaze Odiwingie, Vincent Enyama, Samuel Eto'o, Zidane, Mohammed Abu Tarika, Taiye Taiwo, Obafemi Martins, Dominic Adiyiah, Opoku Agyemang, etc. would all be paraded by their respective countries. Millions of soccer fans world-wide would be glued to their television sets to feed their eyes with artistic soccer display throughout the period of the Africa cup of nations' championship 2010. Samuel Eto'o would certainly be the centre of attraction: being the highest goal scorer of all time in the African nations cup history a lot would be expected from him. Would he deliver again this time around? Or would someone else equal or break his record? That would be an uphill task for any player at the moment. Another player that would also attract much attention is Didier Drogba of Chelsea Fc who is currently the highest goal scorer in the Barclays English premiership. With Drogba scoring close 20 goals in the first half of the league a lot of soccer fans would expect him to do very well in Angola.
The question on everyone's lips is 'who lifts the trophy at the end', Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'ivoire, Cameroon, Egypt or Angola? The end shall tell as each of the above-listed countries has the wherewithal to lift this year's Africa cup of Nations' trophy. As the various teams file out to confront each other and entertain their teeming spectators, they should remember to approach each game in the spirit of 'fair play' as the game of soccer is built on the grounds of fostering unity and love amongst the competing nations, and should not be a theartre of war or a do-or-die affair. As the tournament finally winds to a close on 31st Jan. 2010, one thing is sure- there would be a new African champions, but who would that be? Till then.
0 comments:
Post a Comment