Day 1:
South Africa shows the rest of the continent how to party!
But on the pitch, they offered little...all pespiration...
A high tempo game repeatedly died in the Cape Verde final third..
And if this game was poor, the Morocco/Niger match was even worse!
Day 2:
A poor tournament continued with Mali beating Niger...
But it would finally light up as DR Congo would come from two goals down to earn a pulsating draw with Ghana.
Much like I feared, Ghana's shoddy organization in the non-possession phase would repeatedly be exposed by the Congolese.
And while Kwadwho Asamoah is good going forward, unlike in his club Juventus, there is no Georgio Chiellini behind to protect his back...
Day 3:
On a pitch unfit for cattle grazing, Nigeria draw a game they appeared comfortably in control of for much of the match without ever being spectacular. And for much of the match, it appeared they did not need to.
In attack with genuine pace, even on a poor, poor surface, the cutting edge was self evident. But it required a lot more from the midfield, and even more composure from Ike Uche...
But Burkina Faso kept plugging away, and Nigeria? They would do the same things again and again, repeatedly looking for the ball over the top. In the end, the Burkinabe's would get some vital breaks.
Not to blame everything on the pitch, but Nosa's main strength is his ability to drive at the opponent from midfield in open play and it was always going to be hard to do that on this pitch...In my opinion, he then failed to adapt his game appropriately to the circumstance...
First Nigerian coach opted to withdraw Emenike, who had troubled the Burkinable defence all day, wide on the right, left, centrally and occassionally in midfield. Unless the Spartak Moscow player was injured (he appeared okay), tactically it made little sense.
With two players, Fengor Ogude and Efe Ambrose on yellow cards, the decision was taken to introduce Onazi for the ineffective Ogude. But suprisingly he did not move across to offer protection for Ambrose, as Pitroipa repeatedly dropped into midfield to pick up the ball and run at him..
Yet, even with Ambrose expelled and Burkina surging in attack, they offered very little genuine threat.
With seconds left in the game and the ball in the Burkina last third, you would hardly expect Nigeria to be caught out by a counter, chasing a second goal they did not need.
There would be loud complaints by the Nigerian fans about the performance of the referee, and although he was inconsistent in several instances, he was never a factor in the outcome...
Herve Renard: The New White Witch Doctor!
Earlier, Zambia played out a 1-1 draw in a game they must thank the South Africans for a pitch of such poor quality that a goal bound shot from Ethiopia managed to get a chipolopolo bounce and go over the woodwork...
A truly dissapointing performance from a team that is much better than they showed, all due respect to the Ethiopians.
Even with a man down, Ethiopia repeatedly created 2v1 situations in central midfield from which to launch swift counters.
And as the game wore on Renard's voodoo tactics would leave Zambia sometimes with only one central midfielder, while Mbesuma and Mulenga would repeatedly make the same runs, into the same space...Not content with the dysfunction, Monsieur Renard would add a third striker, Southampton's Mayuka in the mix!
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