African Nations Cup

[Prando]

I particularly pleased he’s returning AND apparently injury free !

[boingy]

I find African football a hard watch, lots of kick and mindless rush but then some superb goals. Definitely swings and roundabouts.

[Omegstrat6]

Hardly the best team of the whole tournament won, though. Going into the semis Côte d’Ivoire had played 5 games: 1 win, 2 draws (won at pens and AET), 2 defeats and GD 4-7.

That's certainly true but they also improved greatly both in the semi-final and then the final. That said, more favoured teams like Nigeria and DR Congo performed poorly whilst, on the other hand, lowly rated South Africa were probably the surprise of the tournament (helped in no small measure by goalkeeper Ronwen Williams!)

[Omegstrat6]

I find African football a hard watch, lots of kick and mindless rush but then some superb goals. Definitely swings and roundabouts.

I only watched the two semi-finals and the final as whole games, catching only bits of the others but understand what you are saying. At times, the games looked far from world class but then they would have these bursts of speed and undeniable skill and quality and, as you say, some superb goals. Maybe playing in that heat (they had cooling breaks at 30 and 60 mins) affects the nature of the games? Despite some poor passages of play however, I quite enjoyed watching and the home crowds provided an excellent atmosphere.

[kettering_baggie]

I haven’t watched any of it, nor an Asian tournament was it, as I am just not interested in foreign football.

[Omegstrat6]

I haven’t watched any of it, nor an Asian tournament was it, as I am just not interested in foreign football.

To be honest, although I used to watch bits of Italian Serie A year's ago, outside of the World Cup games I very rarely watch foreign football myself these days and have similarly little interest in the Champions League. Only reason I caught the AFCON games was because I happened to be off work and because of Ajayi's and Diangana's involvement but ended up quite enjoying them.

[boingy]

The sad thing for our lads is that Diangana was on the winning team but not in the match day squad and Semi played in the final but lost. Puts a damper on it for both of them really.