Notes on COCAN

Eurosport has been showing way too much African Cup of Nations and not enough of the Australian Open as I would like, so I thought I might as well give you my 2 cents on the African lot...

first of all what concerns us, ALGERIA- they look to be a limited, but very competent side. egypt's retarded stepdaughter if you like. There is a huge gap and contrast between the styles of the North African teams and the rest, and Algeria are no exception. They're a conservative, defensive minded, counter-attacking side. (sound familiar?) I still cant figure out how they beat Egypt, but they were able to stave them off when it counted, so they shouldn't be underestimated. That being said, they were atrocious in their first game, their best player looks like its their left back, portsmouth's belhadj, they dont have any real playmakers on the ball, and they only scored 1 goal in the group stage which was enough to limp through. they should lose to the ivory coast today, but you never know with them. and just a side note their goalless draw with angola, was probably the most sorry excuse of a football match you'll ever see.

maybe its just this competition, but EGYPT look far and away like the team best equipped to handle international football. they defend well as a unit, and they have the talent going forward. Momo Zidan is probably the best player on the continent (yeah i said it Essien), so we can count ourselves as lucky that it is algeria and not egypt we're facing.

as for the rest the usual african suspects, i just don't trust em. that means Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Nigeria. (ghana are missing too many players to be judged realistically in this tournament). Their defenses are seemingly capable of lapses at any given moment. Everyone wants to hop on the ivory coast's bandwagon, but any team with Eboue in its 11 isnt going to win a major tournament...ever. Nigeria too are a scary team. My man Odemwingue is disgusting, and should still be in france, or spain, but went to russia for the $. and obafemi martins is still the fastest man on this side of the Sahara, but its almost inexplicable this tendency these african teams have to lose their concentration, ball watch, and let whoever just waltz right through them will ultimately catch up to them and hold them back in a major tournament.

The same holds true for Cameroon,and Carlos kameni, who you figure is a legitimate keeper because he plays at Espanyol, has been guilty of some of the most outrageous keeping in the entire tournament so far. Dont trust em. Egypt to win, if not Angola, who have looked as good as anyone, and have a more (ahem) traditional keeper.
I like Egypt over Angola in the final.